The World is Our Oyster
by TransfiguredToad
Summary: Having an arrest warrant with your name on it forces you to take a different perspective in life. Harry and Ginny would know. Follow the young couple as they realise that what seemed to be the worst thing in the world to happen to them may just be the thing to free them from the constraints of life. H/G AU
1. Chapter 1

_Hey guys! I know I'm a bit post happy this evening after so many months (years?) without posting, but I've been writing this story pretty solidly over the past few months so I thought I'd finally post it. This is a redo of The World is Our Oyster, which I think is better? I hope you guys agree. I'm gonna post the seven chapters that were originally posted and then maybe the eighth in a few days, once I've finished the ninth. Hope you enjoy! (Let me know if you do. Also, if you have any ideas for a new name coz I really don't like this one but I can't think of a new one and I just wanted to get this up lol)_

Harry sat on the chair beside her, a three-month-old magazine in his hand, hanging limply. He'd stopped looking at it as soon as the nurse had left the room. He was breaking apart. They'd been gone from Hogwarts for four days and, already, he'd failed. Ginny was lying in a hospital bed, asleep after her operation. He'd promised to look after her. They'd promised to look after each other and he'd failed her. She'd done everything for him. She'd done what she'd promised. And, despite all of that, despite his promise, here he was, sat beside her.

The hospital was asking for her name, her identity, her parents' details. Harry hadn't told them anything. This was the one thing he could do. He could do everything possible to make sure they weren't caught while they were here. He was going to protect her properly from now on. He was going to look after her.

It had come out of nowhere. It had been raining. No wonder she hadn't seen it. Harry should've seen it. Harry should've known that it would come. It haunted him now. Her scream. The crunch of her bones. All his fault. All of it.

Harry stroked her hair back from her face. She looked so peaceful asleep. She'd been in so much pain before they'd put her to sleep and it had physically hurt him to see her in that way. Now, though, she looked completely calm and at peace with herself and with the world. He wondered how she'd react when she woke up and there were all sorts of tubes sticking out of her. She wouldn't have encountered any of it before.

Harry sighed. Had it only been four days? Four days ago, he'd been at Hogwarts with Ron and Hermione and everyone. Four days ago, he'd been free and innocent and safe. Now, look what had happened. He wondered if it would ever go back to normal again. He wondered if he and Ginny could survive this, if they could stay out of prison forever. He didn't know if they could, but he was going to try.

 **XXX**

Bridget Mellard was Ginny Weasley's best friend. She had been for years, since their second year, when Bridget had started Hogwarts. She'd been home-schooled for her first year, but her mother had been happy to send her to Hogwarts when she was twelve. Apparently, she was old enough then. Now, two years later, Bridget was fed up. Ginny had had no friends so she'd been the perfect candidate to be her friend, but Ginny was boring and wore old, boy's clothes. She was poor and she was so in love with Harry Potter it was hilarious. But Bridget knew something about Ginny that nobody else did. Ginny had opened the Chamber of Secrets in her first year and nearly killed lots of little mudbloods.

And, now, Bridget was going to tell everyone.

"I can't do this anymore," Bridget muttered one evening in the common room.

"What do you mean, Bridge?" her sister, Constance, asked her faux-curiously. Bridget and Constance had planned this all out during the Easter holidays.

Bridget looked down at the floor. "I can't be friends with a monster."

Constance stared at her, her eyes wide. "What on earth are you talking about?" she asked.

"Her!" Bridget exclaimed, pointing at Ginny.

"Bridget, I don't-" Ginny tried.

"You opened the Chamber of Secrets!" Bridget shouted across the room. She delighted in the look on Ginny's little face, her eyes open wide and her mouth parted. She looked perfectly horrified. And then, the most perfect thing happened. Harry Potter came over. Bridget had expected the Weasley brothers, but this was so much better.

"Voldemort opened the Chamber," Harry growled. Ginny put her hand on his arm.

"Oh, here he is!" Bridget shouted hysterically. "Come to protect your little harlot?" she questioned mockingly. Ginny was shaking. "Your death eater _slut_?" she said, enunciating every word. "Look at her hand on your arm, calming you, protecting you. Aren't you just sickening?"

"She isn't a death eater," Harry ground out and Bridget cackled.

"But she is a slut?" Bridget laughed at the venom in Harry's glare. "Do you not think we all notice? When you sneak down to the common room, _Ginny_? I followed you once," Bridget chuckled. "I saw you and him, in the common room," she said, gesturing dismissively to Harry.

Like Bridget had wanted, a large crowd had drawn to listen to them, including the Weasley brothers. "What is she talking about, Harry?" Ron asked. Bridget smirked.

"When did it start, Potter? When you covered for her after the Chamber? Was she _so_ grateful? I guess she spread her legs and you just _couldn't_ say no. And ' _Voldemort'_? Voldemort is dead, Potter," Bridget 'informed' him. " _She_ ," Bridget gestured to Ginny, "opened the Chamber of Secrets and nearly killed Hermione, Colin, Penelope, Justin," Bridget listed.

"Voldemort possessed Ginny. She lost control of her actions. She didn't have a choice," Harry emphasised. Ginny paled beside him and Bridget smirked.

"Oh, you _are_ protective of her, Potter. You'd think she was your _girlfriend_ ," Bridget teased. "Is she? I mean, she must be a good fuck because look at the state of her. Who would go out with a girl with no tits, tatty clothes and a face covered in freckles? And the state of her hair! Bright orange and always stuffed up in a ponytail. Oh, Potter, you must be desperate."

"Ginny is _gorgeous_ and I'd rather someone who had no tits than someone who stuffs their bra with tissues," Harry shot at her. Bridget's nostrils flared.

"You know, Potter, Ginny went on about you for years. Harry this and Harry that. Harry's so kind. Harry's so nice. Harry's so handsome. Harry's so brave. She told me all about you. And when your bra broke? He bought you a new one didn't he, Gin? And he bought you some shoes and a new skirt and even a new wand," Bridget drawled and Ginny's face blanched. Her brothers' faces went bright red and Bridget revelled in it. "What did you do for it, Gin? Did you lie on your back and spread your legs? Did you let him do anything to you? Did you enjoy it?" she hissed at the end.

"Fuck off, Bridget," Ginny spat at her and Bridget cackled again. There was practically steam coming out of Potter's ears.

"You know, Gin, I think I will. I think I'll go to bed. I'll sleep better now that everybody knows about your murderous ways, your whorish ways. Oh, what will Mummy say? Night night," she said with a wink and swept up the stairs.

Ginny slouched down onto the sofa and the person sat on the other side shot up and ran upstairs. Harry stared at Ginny. She wasn't crying and he was proud of her for that. He took the seat of the boy who had run upstairs.

"Are you okay, Gin?" Harry asked tentatively.

"I'm fine, Harry," she told him harshly. "I don't need you to look after me."

Everyone in the room was staring at them and Harry narrowed his eyes at her. "Ginny, I was just sticking up for you!"

"I can fight my own battles, Harry! I'm not eleven anymore! If you'd have left well alone, the whole common room wouldn't be thinking that we'd shagged!" she shouted at him, standing up and gesturing wildly.

Harry's eyes flared. "I wanted to help, Ginny!"

"That's your problem, Harry. You always need to help, to butt in and save everyone. Well, maybe things are better when you don't!"

"Well, I don't know if you'd realised, _Gin_ , but you'd be dead if I hadn't!"

"Oh fucking hell, Harry, are you going to hold that over me for the rest of my life? Are you going to demand something in ransom? Do you want me to spread my legs for you, like everyone in here thinks I already have?"

"Don't be stupid, Ginny," Harry snapped at her.

"Stupid, yep, that describes me quite well, doesn't it? Stupid Ginny, who wrote to a diary because she didn't know how to make any real friends. Stupid Ginny, who told a diary everything about her, everything about a stupid, arrogant, moody boy who she fancied herself in love with. Stupid Ginny, who didn't realise that it was possessing her. Stupid Ginny, who let herself get dragged down to a chamber and nearly murdered. Stupid Ginny, who nearly killed a load of muggleborns. Stupid Ginny, who had to be saved by a hat, a bird and a twelve-year-old boy. Stupid Ginny, who went to Egypt and told her big brother all about it and cried and cried and cried until her stomach ached. Stupid Ginny, who never has a full night's sleep because all she can see when she falls asleep is Tom Riddle and his smug, smug face, and a boy lying dead because he tried to save her. Stupid Ginny, who came down to the common room and told a stupid boy that she believed that he hadn't put his name in the goblet. Stupid Ginny, who spent most nights in his company in front of a fire, listening to all his secrets and telling him all of hers, only for him not to know that she's not just a little girl who can't speak for herself! Stupid Ginny, whose best friend was a complete bitch and she knew that but she thought that they would be best friends forever. Stupid Ginny, who thought she could ever be normal again after she nearly killed people! Stupid, stupid, stupid Ginny. But it's okay, because at least everyone knows now, hey, Harry? At least everyone knows that I nearly killed people, that I ripped apart roosters, that I let a basilisk loose in a school, all for Lord Voldemort. They all know, now, so I don't need to pretend anymore. They all know, now, so I don't need to hide my nightmares. They all know, now, so I guess I don't need you anymore," she spat at him.

Harry scoffed at her. "You know, if you actually think that, Ginny, then you're more stupid than I thought," he told her and she barked a laugh.

"Go on, Harry, pray tell," she asked, cocking an eyebrow.

"Because of course you need me, just like I need you! You are the only person in the entire world who gets me. You are the only person in the entire world who understands what it's like to have Voldemort in your head. You are the only person in the entire world who can calm me down after a nightmare, who can calm me down when I'm petrified, no pun intended. I _need_ you and I know that you need me for the same reasons, you stupid girl! And, if that wasn't enough, Ginny, you are completely and utterly delusional if you think you are not the bravest person that I know. You had Voldemort in your head for a year, a full year and you fought him! When you were eleven years old, Ginny! You are the strongest and the bravest and the kindest and the cleverest and the most wonderful person I know and you are a moody cow who won't accept help from anyone because, the last time she did, he possessed her!" Harry screamed at her. Ginny gasped out loud.

"Oh, you are such a _cunt_ , Harry, and you cannot talk at all! You don't let anybody touch you, you don't let anybody comfort you, you don't let anybody near you. You flinch if anybody touches you. You flinch if anybody talks about love. You flinch if somebody walks past you too fast. You aren't the only one who notices things, Harry Potter. I know you as well as you know me and you're fucking right. I do need you. I need you more than anybody on the planet because you are the only person who knows me for me, not the me that I was before Voldemort, before I did what I did. You know me, Harry, and you knew exactly what I needed," she said, slumping back down onto the couch and beginning to sob. Harry took her into his arms immediately and Fred and George began to clear the room, for which Ginny was grateful.

Ginny sobbed and sobbed and sobbed and Harry buried his face into her hair so that nobody would see the tears on his face. "I'm sorry," he chanted into her hair. "I'm so sorry, Gin," he told her and she repeated the same thing into his chest.

They didn't know how long they sat there for, huddled together and holding each other, but they were sure that they were just confirming the rumours about having slept together.

"We've cleared the room," they heard George say quietly, but the two continued to cling to each other. Eventually, Harry pulled away from Ginny and brushed the tears off her cheeks. Ginny chuckled and wiped her nose.

"Sorry," she whispered and Harry shook his head.

"What the fuck?" Ron burst and Ginny and Harry looked up at him.

"Ron, maybe we should leave them-"

"Leave them? Leave them? You're supposed to be my best friend!" he directed the last part of this at Harry. "You're supposed to be my best friend and you're what? Sleeping with my sister?"

"Ron," Harry said quietly, "Ginny and I aren't-"

"Aren't what?" he demanded angrily.

"We're not together! We're not sleeping together!" Harry shouted. "Ron, I have nightmares. You know I have nightmares. Ginny has nightmares. When I can't sleep, I go down to the common room and Ginny does the same and one night we both happened to be there and, so, whenever we can't sleep, we meet in the common room and we talk about our nightmares, about the things that caused our nightmares. I rely on her. She keeps me sane. She helps me to sleep. She – I dunno, Ron. She's my friend. She's like Hermione," Harry said, trying to get Ron to understand. Ron nodded slowly.

"So, she's not your girlfriend?" Harry shook his head emphatically. "Okay, so why did you buy her that stuff? Why would you buy her a _bra_?" he asked incredulously.

"Look, Ron, your mum, your whole family, has done so much for me and I wanted to do something back for them. And Ginny told me that her bra was too small and she needed a new one, so I offered to give her the money and she was just going to get one, and a really cheap one, so I told her that she could get whatever she wanted because I have all this money and I want to use it to help the people I care about. So, she bought that and then she told me her wand wasn't her own, so I got her her own, and her skirt was too short so I got her one of those too. I just wanted to help, Ron," Harry rambled. Ginny sat next to him with red eyes and red cheeks.

"Ginny, you know we don't accept charity," Fred said stiffly.

"How is this different from Harry giving you his Triwizard winnings?" Ginny snapped at him. "Harry knew I needed those things and he had the money and he offered and of course I said no originally but he wanted to help me. I was wearing a bra that was too small, painfully small," she told them.

"And how the hell did he find that out?" George asked harshly.

"I told him! I tell him everything!" Ginny screamed. "I am fed up of this inquisition. It's my life and I'll do whatever I want. Harry will do the same. You are not my keepers. Now, fuck off and go to bed. I'm going to sleep down here."

 **XXX**

Harry crept down the stairs in his pyjamas, when Ron's snores had finally begun to reverberate around the tower. "Hey," he whispered and Ginny sat up. She was tucked up underneath a blanket. She lifted it up and allowed Harry to come and sit with her under the blanket. "How are you?" he asked her quietly.

"You mean now I've got no friends?" Ginny asked derisively.

"Hey, you've always got me," he reminded her and she nodded, leaning her head on his shoulder.

"I know," she said. "Harry, I'm petrified. After the Chamber, Dumbledore said not to tell anyone about it, because I could be arrested," she whispered. Harry looked at her sharply. "And I didn't for a while, but, then, I don't know. I was fed up of not talking about it. So, at the beginning of third year, I told Bridget and I never imagined that she'd do anything except support me. I thought she was my friend," Ginny whispered.

Harry shook his head. "Gin, do you think she would go to the ministry?" he asked.

Ginny shrugged, swiping at her eyes. "I don't know. I never thought she would tell anyone about the Chamber, but here we are. I don't think I know who she is, Harry."

"Whatever happens, everything is going to be okay. Whatever happens, Gin, I promise you, I'll look after you, whatever that means," he promised her, "and I know, I know, you're your own person and you don't need me to look after you but I will none-the-less." Ginny nodded, looking down at her hands. "And, also, I want you to know that you're not stupid and, whatever that stupid bitch says, whatever anyone says, the Chamber was not your fault." Seeing that she was about to protest, Harry continued, "Ginny, you had the most powerful dark wizard in your head, telling you what to do, controlling your every action, and you survived."

"Only because of you," she interrupted and Harry shook his head.

"Yeah, Gin, at the end, that was me, but for an entire year you fought Riddle all on your own," he told her. "You're incredible and you are so far from stupid. I'm so sorry," he begged her, taking her hands in his. She smiled down at their hands and Harry pulled one hand away to wipe a tear from her face.

"I'm sorry too, Harry. The things I said about you, about affection. Merlin, I called you a cunt," Ginny laughed at herself and Harry laughed too.

"I was being one, really, Gin," he said quietly. Ginny shook her head.

"You were looking after me and that's what we do, you and me. We look after each other," she reminded him and he grinned at her. She grinned back and pushed his glasses up his face. It was then that he noticed just how close they were sat together. He re-evaluated his earlier statement that she was gorgeous – she was so much more than gorgeous.

"Harry," she muttered and then he kissed her chastely, on the lips. He pulled back and looked into her eyes. She smiled at him and leaned forward again. He kissed her properly then, like he'd seen people do in films, and it felt incredible. His first kiss and he was pretty sure that, if it was his only one ever, he'd be okay with that.

But then reality kicked in. And he pulled back, horrified. He'd just promised Ron that they weren't together, and here he was kissing her? He stood up and stared at her, mouth agog. She looked heartbroken and his heart tore, but he was too much of a coward. He ran upstairs, away from the beautiful sister of his best friend.

 **XXX**

The next morning, Harry had a morning quidditch practise and Angelina was drilling them. He'd just left his early morning detention with Umbridge and his hand was killing. Red and bloody, the words "I must not tell lies" were etched into his skin. He had a feeling they would be permanent. She'd let him go early, Umbridge, and Harry had no idea why. It wasn't like her, but Harry was hardly going to complain.

It was when Harry was walking back to Hogwarts with Ron that Harry noticed the minister speaking with Dumbledore. Harry and Ron shared a look, but moved onwards, until they saw Ginny, being led by two aurors. Harry was running for her straight away, Ron not far behind. Dumbledore saw the two of them coming.

"Potter," Fudge said discontentedly. "I knew you'd be related to this somehow." Dumbledore gave Harry an almost imperceptible shake of his head, but Harry wasn't having it. He was fed up of Dumbledore's lack of protection. This wasn't about him anymore; this was about Ginny. And he'd promised to look after her. Even if that meant Azkaban or death. He was going to save her. She wouldn't survive Azkaban. She'd spend every day being tormented by Tom Riddle and her inner demons and he wasn't going to let that happen.

"Minister!" another auror cried from the door of Hogwarts. The two aurors with Ginny looked up and Harry met her eyes. He nodded at her and then turned to Ron. "It's Umbridge!" Dumbledore and Fudge walked closer to this auror. "She's dead!"

"What?" the two leaders said incredulously.

"Estimated time of death was eleven o'clock this morning," the auror informed them. Harry took a sharp intake of breath. That was about five minutes after he'd left his detention with her. He saw Dumbledore look at him and Harry suddenly knew he wasn't safe. His wand was in his hand. He was going to use this distraction to get Ginny and run. "Her diary shows that she had a detention with Potter until that time this morning."

Harry didn't take the time to note his reaction because he sent a bombarda spell at the aurors next to Ginny. It sent the three of them flying and he ran to grab Ginny, sending two stupefy spells at the aurors. Fudge had barely gotten his wand out at this point, but the other auror was sending spells after them. Harry felt a spell hit his arm and slice open the skin there, but he didn't care. He continued to run, through the grand doors and up the first staircase. It turned as they reached the top and he grinned. Perfect timing, Hogwarts. It was as if the castle was on his side. They ran past Professor McGonagall and she screamed after them. Harry turned at the end of the corridor and shook his head at her. She gave him a curt nod and took out her wand.

Harry and Ginny ran, Ron on their tail, through passageways and up secret staircases, never being more thankful for the marauders and their knowledge passed on through the map. They reached the common room and blurted out the password. Once in there, they stopped and caught their breath. They weren't safe, but they had a second. "I'll meet you in my dormitory in two minutes, Gin. Just grab what you need," he instructed her and she nodded.

"Fred, George, Hermione," Harry panted, pointing upstairs. They followed him dutifully and he gave them a quick rundown on their events. They voiced their outrage, but Harry quickly told them they didn't have time. "We have to go, me and Ginny," he informed them.

"What?" they all said incredulously.

"They're going to arrest us if we don't. We'll come back when we're cleared. You have to stay and keep teaching the DA," Harry instructed them as he threw the most important things he had into his bag, his broom still in his hand from practise and his invisibility cloak in the other.

"Harry," Hermione sobbed and he took her into his arms, allowing her to sob into his shoulder. He met eyes with Ron over her shoulder.

Fred and George looked grimly at Harry and promised that they'd do all they could to help them out of the castle by distracting the aurors. At this point, Ginny arrived, a backpack slung over her shoulders. She sobbed at the sight of her brothers and the three of them engulfed her into a hug. Harry hugged Hermione as fiercely as the three Weasley brothers hugged their sister, but they had to pull away eventually.

"Tell Mum and Dad that we'll be back, one day, whether it's in a week or a year. Tell them all I love them," she sobbed to her brothers. "Tell Bill and Charlie and- and tell Percy, when he figures it out," she begged them and they each nodded. In the corner of the room, Harry was clinging to Hermione, who was sobbing heavily into his shoulder.

Ginny wiped her eyes and looked over to Harry. "Harry," she whispered and he nodded, pulling away from Hermione. Hermione nodded at him and squeezed his hands. Harry grabbed his bag and pulled Ron in for a quick, rough hug.

"Look after her," Ron instructed him gruffly. Harry nodded gravely.

"Look after her," Harry said, nodding towards Hermione, "and you look after him."

The two of them nodded. "We'll see you soon. I promise," Harry swore, before taking Ginny's hand and fleeing the room.


	2. Chapter 2

"Look after her," Ron instructed him gruffly. Harry nodded gravely.

"Look after her," Harry said, nodding towards Hermione, "and you look after him."

The two of them nodded. "We'll see you soon. I promise," Harry swore, before taking Ginny's hand and fleeing the room. They hurriedly covered themselves with the invisibility cloak and slipped out of the common room. It was seconds before they saw the aurors, wands out. Harry backed up to the wall and covered Ginny's mouth with his hand. She had her hands placed on the walls behind him. They passed rather quickly, but Harry and Ginny remained, every breath sounding louder than the last, until the aurors had entered the common room.

With thoughts of what was going to happen to their friends and family running through their heads, Harry and Ginny crept away, towards the one-eyed witch statue that had served Harry so well over the years. They slipped inside, assuring that the coast was clear. There had been lots of times over the years that Harry had been grateful for his father's cloak and map, but this topped the lot.

When they were behind the statue, it was dark and they couldn't see one another. Harry thought it was probably for the best. He didn't know what emotions Ginny would see on his face right now. He didn't know what he'd see on hers. It was the thought of how Ginny must be feeling that prompted Harry to take Ginny's hand and squeeze it.

They walked briskly down the corridor, each holding a bag that was incredibly heavy but contained everything they thought they might need or want. It was only now, as the adrenaline was dimming, that they were noticing just how much of a burden the bags were. They were too big and bulky, and the weight of them was slowing them down.

They walked for what felt like hours, backs aching. There was no concept of time anymore, in the dark tunnel. Neither had their wands and they had no source of light. Harry knew in his head that it couldn't be hours because the trip to Hogsmeade through the tunnel was only an hour long, but it certainly felt like it. When they reached the end of the tunnel, Harry pulled a mirror out from his pocket. Even in the dark, Ginny saw the glint.

"Is this really the time for vanity, Harry?" she teased lightly but Harry could hear something in her voice, a catch of emotion.

Harry rolled his eyes. "It's a contact mirror. Sirius Black," he stated firmly into the mirror. Ginny furrowed her brows and peered into the mirror. She could only see herself and Harry, very dimly. "Sirius Black," Harry repeated.

Ginny didn't know how many times he'd repeated it, growing more and more desperate, when they finally heard "Harry?"

Ginny took a sharp intake of breath, understanding what this mirror meant. They could keep in contact with their families, easily. "Harry, what's up? Are you okay?" Sirius asked quickly. "Where are you? I can barely see you."

"It's me and Ginny. We're at the end of the One-Eyed Witch tunnel," Harry said, his voice shaking slightly. Ginny's heart beat fast.

"The end?" Sirius demanded. "The end? You mean past Hogsmeade? The very end?"

Harry nodded and then spoke his affirmation as well, realising that Sirius probably couldn't see him. "Sirius, we're in trouble, like proper trouble. The Minister was at Hogwarts with some aurors, to arrest Ginny, because of the Chamber. And then they found out Umbridge was dead and she let me go out of my detention early, but the official records have me being in there until 11:00, which is the time of her death. Dumbledore looked at me and he knew, so we distracted the aurors and ran to the common room. Ginny and I packed some things, said goodbye and ran away."

"Jesus, Harry," Sirius swore. "Right, the aurors? Do you know if they saw you getting into the tunnel?"

Harry shook his head. "No, they didn't. Who else would know about it?"

Sirius blew out a breath. "I think Snivellus might know about it. McGonagall does and Madam Pomfrey, but neither of them will tell the ministry about it and Snivellus is far enough up Dumbledore's arse that he won't. There may be some students and maybe ex-students. Some death eaters will. Pettigrew will have seen to that," Sirius spat. "Malfoy Junior might know if Lucius does. You should be okay for a while, though, kiddo."

"What do we do now? We can't go back!" Harry exclaimed.

"No, of course not. And you can't go to Hogsmeade. It'll be swarming by now. That's where they'll assume that you'll go. Now, the end of that tunnel, it's not really the end. Feel about on the wall, there's a loose brick," Sirius instructed and Harry did as he was told. Ginny felt hope rise inside her.

Harry found the loose brick after a few moments and pulled it out. By magic, the whole brick wall melted away. Ginny grinned. "Good," Sirius said. "Now, there's three paths in front of you and down each one there's more. They'll all take you to different places and they may take you days to get there. I've not been down all of them and I don't know which paths I took anyway. Choose randomly as you're going and you'll end up somewhere. When you get out, call me again and tell me where you are."

Harry nodded. "Sirius, I don't know where I'd be without you."

Sirius scoffed. "You'd have figured something out, kiddo. Anyway, you need to move. Have you got any food with you?" he asked them.

"I've got a few chocolate frogs," Harry said and looked over to Ginny. She shrugged helplessly. Sirius sighed.

"Move as quickly as you can and, when you get out, get some food. Have you got any money?"

"Only galleons."

Sirius shook his head and swore. "You'll have to steal." Harry shook his head.

"That's fine. We'll figure something out, Sirius."

"Right, good. I'm going to go and tell your parents, Ginny, and the rest of the Order what's going on, kiddos. Look after each other. I expect you'll have another call in a few minutes from Madame Weasley," Sirius said wryly. Ginny chuckled.

"Thank you, Sirius," she said and Sirius nodded.

"We'll speak soon. Love you," he said as he hung up. Harry didn't respond, Ginny noticed.

Harry and Ginny surveyed the three paths ahead. One was significantly steeper downwards than the others and one seemed especially thin. They chose the other, the one to the left. Harry took Ginny's hand and squeezed it. "Let's go," he said.

As Sirius predicted, it wasn't long until they received another call. Harry gave it to Ginny and they continued walking as she answered. "Ginny, Ginny, are you alright?" they heard Molly Weasley cry frantically.

Ginny nodded and then spoke. It was darker in this tunnel than the last. "I'm fine, Mum, just annoyed," she told her and Molly nodded.

"Oh, Ginny, Harry, you must come back. It's a big misunderstanding. They'll understand when we give them the evidence!" she pleaded.

"What evidence?" Ginny demanded.

While Ginny and her mother argued, Harry's attention was drawn to Remus, who was stood behind Molly. He was holding up a sign that read "don't listen to her" and Harry's brow furrowed.

"Professor Dumbledore, he'll get you off, just like he did last summer," she explained to her.

Remus' sign was unnecessary. Harry knew that Dumbledore wasn't enough this time. They had to find their own way out of this. And, if Harry was honest, Dumbledore hadn't done a very good job of protecting Ginny when she was being taken away by aurors.

No, they had to run. Ginny and Molly were on the call for a good twenty minutes before Ginny hung up. "We have to keep going," Harry whispered.

"I know," Ginny agreed. "She's delusional if she thinks the ministry will give us a fair trial. No, we've got to do this our own way."

 **XXX**

For the first day, Harry and Ginny took random paths and walked uphill and downhill and through thin tunnels and through tunnels that were basically rooms. They crawled through mud and almost swam through tunnels that were waist deep in water, but they never stopped. Having no idea how far they'd walked but being completely exhausted, they decided to stop in a wide tunnel to sleep. Using their rucksacks for pillows, they lay next to each other. They covered themselves with all the clothing they had brought with them. Fortunately, each had brought a Weasley sweater, but it wasn't enough. It was difficult enough being in the dark, cold tunnel, but their trip through the water tunnel earlier meant that they were both still wet. Harry knew that they were running the risk of illness, but they had no choice. They snuggled together as closely as they could, split a chocolate frog and tried to sleep.

When they woke, they had no idea of how long they had slept. Neither felt well-rested but they knew that the faster they got out of there, the faster they could get more food.

They stood again and walked. The self-replenishing water bottle Harry had had with him for quidditch was incredibly useful and they were just hoping that the small bits of magic it used weren't being tracked. They spoke to Sirius again and Ginny spoke to her mother and Bill, but there wasn't much to share. The Ministry had issued Harry's arrest warrant and a reward had been put out for both of them. Umbridge's body was being analysed to see what had caused her death and Tonks was trying to keep her eye out in the auror office, but it was top secret.

They spoke sometimes, but mostly kept to silence. Neither wanted to talk about the thoughts going around in their heads. Harry didn't think he'd ever been so scared. Even when he'd run away before his third year, he'd not felt the fear he was feeling now. Maybe it was knowing that he'd have not only the ministry on his trail, but Voldemort too. And Ginny was in more danger because she was with him.

"Where do you think we should go, Harry, when we get out?" Ginny said quietly and Harry sighed. He had no idea. He'd been thinking whilst they'd been walking. Surely, London was too obvious. They couldn't go anywhere near Surrey or Devon, because that's what the ministry would expect. They had to go somewhere unrelated to either of them, where they'd never been before, somewhere the ministry would have no reason to look.

"I dunno, Gin. I've been trying to think and I've got no idea. We need to go somewhere big, where we'll blend in, but we can't go to London. So, any other city. We've got no passports, so we can't exactly leave the country," Harry thought out loud.

"When we get there, though, I was thinking. We could sell our galleons. They're made of gold aren't they? And the muggles, they value gold, more than us anyway. I reckon we could sell the galleons and maybe we'd have enough money to get some food then," Ginny said enthusiastically.

Harry nodded. "You're right. Good idea. We'll do that and then we'll make a plan for how to get more money."

The walking was tiring and they were both losing motivation. The thought that they might have yet another day of this endless walking was unbearable. It was just as Harry was going to suggest trying to sleep that Ginny walked straight into a wall. They were at a dead end. They would have to turn around. It had been ages since they'd last taken a tunnel. For all of that walking to have been for nothing was unfathomable.

"Harry, Harry," Ginny said excitedly. "There are holes in the wall. I think they might be steps!"

Harry couldn't believe it. Was it over? Were they finally going to be out? Harry saw Ginny move in the dark and he moved as closely behind her as he could. He didn't want her to fall. If she hurt herself, he didn't know what they would do.

The holes in the wall were unsteady and they both wobbled more than one time. It was like rock climbing, Harry considered, only without the rope or the security that if you fall, you'll live. They must have been far underground because the steps went on forever. Harry heard Ginny cry out. "What?" he shouted.

"There's a door! Harry, there's a door in the roof!" she screamed and Harry let out a whoop. He heard Ginny struggle with it and then the glorious sound of a door that clearly hadn't been opened for years flap open. The light hurt his eyes, so used to the dark now. He could see Ginny and watched her clamber out of the door. He followed her swiftly, never so happy to feel grass.

They lay next to each other on the fresh grass, staring up at the bright blue sky and laughing with joy.

"And just who might you be?"

 **XXX**

Ginny's heart jumped. That wasn't Harry's voice. She sat up, her backpack falling to the floor. Out of the corner of her eye, she watched Harry mimic her movements. There was a man stood in front of them, bald and tall. Ginny took in their surroundings as she pulled herself off the floor. They were in a pristinely kept garden. There were rose bushes and a fountain and the house in front of them was small and quaint. Ginny swallowed noisily.

Harry finally stood up next to her. "I'm so sorry, sir. We got trapped in a tunnel and this was just where it let us out," he explained contritely.

"Yes, and look what you've done to my bleeding grass!" he said in a strong Scottish accent. They both looked at where he was pointing and saw that, when they'd opened the trapdoor, they'd ripped up a load of this man's grass. "My wife's gone inside to call the police on the pair of you, for trespassing. She went in as soon as we heard your shouting underneath our land. Who the hell do you think you are?"

Ginny thought that the man was being rather inconsiderate. They hadn't chosen to come up on his land and they had apologised.

"No, sir, please, we're really sorry," Harry was begging. The word "police" hadn't meant anything to Ginny when she'd heard it, so she'd just ignored it. She had a feeling she wasn't going to like its meaning.

There was a siren in the distance. Harry's eyes widened. "Yes, it's quite handy having the police station so close," the man said to them.

"Where are we?" Harry asked the man desperately. Ginny looked at him strangely. That didn't really matter now did it.

"Can't you see Ben Nevis over there, you stupid boy?"

Harry grabbed his backpack. "Gin, we have to run," Harry told her. Ginny picked up her backpack too and threw it across her back.

"Oh no you don't!"

The man's wife had emerged from the house and she was holding a wand. Before Harry and Ginny knew what was happening, she'd fired off two stupefys and Harry and Ginny knew no more.

 **XXX**

To say Sirius Black had been confused when he'd picked up his contact mirror and Harry had held his fingers to his lips was to say the least. But Sirius knew his godson so he acquiesced. He kept quiet and listened. Clearly, Harry and Ginny had been caught. The only lead he had to go on was "Ben Nevis". He knew it was a mountain in Scotland. He didn't know anything else.

He had to get to them. They were in more danger than they previously had been. He shouted through the house that they'd been caught and within seconds he had three Weasleys, a Lupin and a Tonks with him.

"Ben Nevis, that's where they are. They could see Ben Nevis from where they were. The muggle police have got them," Sirius said, continuing to listen to what was going on through the contact mirror.

"Ben Nevis?" Remus queried. "They'll be in Fort William. My family went there when I was a kid. I can take us," he told them certainly. Bill and Charlie had their wands out ready and Molly looked caught between fear and misery.

Tonks shot him down. "Take me. I can get them out," she said, flashing her auror badge. "I'm your best chance."

"Tonks, you'll be fired," Bill reminded her. Tonks shook her head. "You will be. They want Harry and Ginny. If you let them go, you'll be fired. They might even send you to prison!"

"Not if you come with me and obliviate them," Tonks added. Bill looked at her contemplatively, before nodding.

Remus spoke up, "okay, I'll take Tonks and then once she knows where she's going we'll come back for Bill and Sirius. Charlie, Molly, you stay here, just in case anything happens." The two Weasleys nodded their acquiescence, Charlie a bit reluctantly. "We'll be back soon."

Remus apparated away with Tonks. Sirius, needing something to do, fiddled with the contact mirror. He'd turned it off a few minutes ago. They didn't need Harry and Ginny being caught with it. It didn't take long for Remus and Tonks to return. "We saw them being taken into the police station. The stunners must have worn off, because they were awake and fighting it," Tonks informed them.

"Right let's go," Sirius said resolutely.

 **XXX**

Harry was scared. He wasn't going to lie. He was absolutely petrified. He and Ginny had been separated, taken into different rooms. "Okay, son, why were you in that garden?" the police officer asked him. Harry hated being called "son" by people he didn't know.

He gritted his teeth. "We got trapped in an old tunnel and that was just where it let us out," he explained for what felt like the millionth time.

"And you didn't know it was going to let you out there?" he asked him and Harry shook his head vehemently.

"No."

"Okay, well, I'm not going to charge you for an accident," the policeman sighed. "I just need some details from you and I can make this go away. Can I take your name?"

Harry froze. If he told them his name, the ministry would be able to find them. "Erm, it's Dudley. Dudley Evans," he said, trying to sound confident when he felt anything but.

"Oh is that right?" the policeman said and Harry knew he didn't believe him. "And your girlfriend? What's she called?"

Harry struggled and then blurted, "Lily, Lily Dursley."

"Well, why were you calling each other Harry and Ginny in the back of my car then, son?" the policeman asked. Harry didn't speak. "Why are you lying about who you are?"

Harry didn't know what to do. What on earth was he going to do?

"Do you want to know what I think?" the policeman asked. Harry had a feeling he didn't. The policeman took a newspaper from behind him. On the front was a picture of him from the Triwizard Tournament and a picture of Ginny from when they went to Egypt. Harry swallowed, reading the headline. The ministry had told the muggle world about he and Ginny, that they were murderers and that they'd run away. "I think you're Harry Potter and your little girlfriend's Ginny Weasley. What do you think about that, son?"

"You're wrong," Harry stated, staring at his face in the newspaper.

"Well, I'm sorry about that, but we've already called the number they gave for if anyone sees you," the policeman said and Harry's heart stopped. The ministry would arrive any second.

There was a knock on the door. Another police officer stood there, Ginny by his side. "They're here to collect them," the new police officer said. The man in front of Harry waved him off and Harry stood, shaking. This was it. They were going to prison. To Azkaban.

Ginny took Harry's hand and he could feel her shaking. They hadn't even lasted- well, they didn't really know how long it had been. This new police officer led the two of them to the foyer, where they saw the ministry worker. There was only one, which Harry found confusing.

"Come on, then," the ministry worker said. "Thanks for finding them," she said to the police officer, shaking his hand. They were led out of the police station.

"Harry!"

Harry's heart stopped when he saw Sirius. His plan had worked. He'd turned on the contact mirror when they'd been in the garden.

Sirius engulfed Harry into a hug. "Come on, kiddo. Bill and Tonks are going to obliviate the lot of them now," he explained and Harry turned to see Ginny in the arms of her brother. Remus Lupin was stood behind Sirius and Harry grinned at him.

"Sirius, they've called the ministry. We have to go," Harry said urgently, just as several cracks sounded. The ministry had arrived.

 **XXX**

It wasn't the ministry, Ginny realised immediately, as the cracks sounded and about twenty death eaters arrived. "Go!" Bill shouted, shoving her to Harry. Harry took her hand and ran. Spells were flying all around them. They were being pursued.

"I've got my cloak," Harry panted, pulling the cloak from under his jumper. Ginny almost screamed in relief. They continued to run, taking random turns. The death eaters continued to gain on them. Ginny was hit with a cutting curse and she cried out in pain. She could feel the blood seeping out of her, but they couldn't stop.

Harry finally had his cloak to full size and threw it over them both. They disappeared from sight and slowed down, stopping running. They heard the death eaters behind them swearing. Backs against the police station, they watched the death eaters scout around the area. Thankfully, there were too many people around for homenum revelio to work. The pair of them started skirting along the side of the police station, until they reached the corner of the building. They could still hear the death eaters.

"Let's go that way," Ginny whispered, pointing down a long road that seemed to be full of shops. Harry nodded and they started walking. It wasn't easy, walking under the cloak with someone else. They moved slowly, careful not to let the cloak slip. As the adrenaline wore off, Ginny realised that they didn't have anything with them anymore. Everything they had brought with them was gone. They didn't even have the contact mirror anymore. The galleons were gone, along with their plan to sell them to get some money. They'd absolutely fucked it.

 **XXX**


	3. Chapter 3

Harry Potter knew how to steal. He'd learnt how to when he was younger and the Dursleys hadn't fed him in a few days. He and Ginny had eaten all of the chocolate frogs that they had had. Even if they hadn't, they were gone now. He wondered if Sirius had got their things. He was so grateful that he'd left the marauders map with Ron, otherwise he was sure it would have been gone forever.

Ginny sat on the bench outside the shop, while Harry sneaked into the shop, under his cloak, straight behind another customer. Clearly, they were in a touristy village because there were souvenirs available in the shops. Harry eyed a backpack, with a picture of Ben Nevis on it. They needed a new bag. He kept his eye on the shopkeeper, but she had no reason to look over where he was. He was invisible. He pulled the bag under his cloak, feeling a sense of guilt in his stomach. There was nothing else they could do.

In the end, Harry thought he must have stolen over £50 worth of things, most of them decorated with the words "Ben Nevis" or a picture of the famous mountain. There were lots of camping things in the shop, being that lots of people camped around the mountain. Harry had taken a Ben Nevis cutlery set and a plate each for himself and Ginny. He'd grabbed a raincoat each, too, and an umbrella, as well as a water bottle each. There was also lots of food in the shop, albeit not good food. There was fudge and sweets, but there was no pasta or anything that would actually fill them up. It was a warm day, so Harry had taken them some ice cream as well.

Once he'd filled the bag, he stood by the door and waited for almost ten minutes before somebody came in and he could slip out. Ginny was staring at Ben Nevis from the bench she was sat on. He sat next to her on the bench and squeezed her knee. "Let's go, Gin."

They walked along the road until they found a discrete alleyway. Harry took off the cloak and showed Ginny what he'd got. Firstly, he gave her a plaster to put over the cut she'd got in the chase and then he offered her a tub of ice cream and a spoon. She grinned at the sight of the treat. Sitting with their backs against the wall of the alleyway, knees folded in front of them, they dug into their ice cream, not speaking about what they were going to do next.

"Oh, I saw a calendar in the shop. It's been two days since we left Hogwarts. It's the 27th of April," Harry informed her. Ginny nodded.

"Okay, then, what should we do next?" she said, looking into her empty ice cream tub.

"Well, the muggles know who we are. We're in their papers, so we can hardly ask for help."

"I was thinking, Harry. Do you remember when Sirius was on the run? He bought you that firebolt didn't he? So you must be able to access your Gringotts vault even if you're a criminal?" Ginny hypothesised. Harry nodded slowly.

"You're right, but he can't have actually gone to Gringotts," he said, confused. Ginny rolled her eyes.

"No, silly, owl order forms!" Harry looked at his ice cream pot as if that were going to give him the answer as to what owl order forms were. Ginny seemed to understand that he didn't know what they were. "You just put your vault number on the form and write down what you want to order. Then it takes some of your blood to check that you're allowed to take money out. I mean, we'll have to order some forms, so we'll need an owl, but it's something at least."

"Yeah, that is something. Ginny, we'll get some brooms!" Harry enthused. "Then, we'll be able to fly from place to place." Ginny nodded enthusiastically. The thought of flying was incredible to Harry. When he went home in the summers, he missed it desperately.

"Right, so we need to get somewhere where we'll be able to find an owl."

"Edinburgh should do," Ginny said with a grin.

 **XXX**

Sirius sat at the table, staring at Harry's belongings. Tonks had managed to get Harry and Ginny's things when she was obliviating the police officers. Just before they were all murdered by death eaters. Fortunately, all four of them had gotten away and it seemed that Harry and Ginny had too. Sirius was cursing himself for not grabbing the pair of them and apparating away as soon as he'd seen them.

"So, they've got nothing," Sirius said flatly. "No money, no way to contact us, not even a spare pair of clothes." Sirius wondered what James and Lily would think of him. What would they be doing now, if Harry was missing and they were still alive? There was no way they'd be sat in a kitchen waiting around. In his head, Sirius knew that he was a wanted man and that he'd be no use to Harry if he was sent back to Azkaban but that didn't stop him from wanting to get out and search for Harry.

Finally, Dumbledore arrived, swooshing out of the fireplace. He didn't look happy, but no one did. They'd lost Harry and Ginny. It had been two full days now since they'd had to run. The pair of them must be starving.

Sirius sat through the Order meeting. He listened to what Dumbledore said about Harry and Ginny, listened to Tonks give her report about what had happened. No plan was made. Once Tonks had finished describing what had happened, it was back to the schedule for monitoring the prophecy.

Sirius couldn't stand it. Molly was constantly crying. Arthur was weary. It seemed that the only people willing to go out and actually look for them were himself, Bill and Charlie. Even Remus had said that they should acquiesce to Dumbledore. Sirius understood why they shouldn't go. They might lead the ministry or Voldemort to them. But, in Sirius' opinion, that wasn't a good enough reason. They had to find them. They were just kids and they were on their own.

Molly started making dinner as soon as most of the Order had left. Dumbledore had a quiet word with Remus, during which they sent lots of looks over to Sirius. Sirius rolled his eyes frequently. He looked up and saw Bill and Charlie in the door frame, out of sight of Molly making dinner and Dumbledore and Remus. They beckoned to him. Sirius furrowed his brow and casually stood up and followed them.

Sirius' mother's study was the nicest room in the house, he had to say. It was the only room that Kreacher had cleaned in the ten years since his mother's death. Sirius leant against the wall after closing the door. Bill and Charlie perched on the desk. "We're gonna go and find them. They're just kids and the fact that we're leaving them on their own, it's despicable," Bill started. Sirius nodded vehemently.

"When are we going?" Sirius asked. Bill and Charlie exchanged a look. "Come on, guys. You can't expect me to stay at home while you're out looking for my godson!"

"Sirius, Harry would be heartbroken if you were caught," Charlie reminded him. "We need to find Pettigrew and then we can free you," the Weasley brother said passionately. Sirius was shocked. It was the first time anyone had suggested finding Pettigrew so that Sirius could be freed. In his shock, Sirius agreed to not leaving the house. "Bill and I are going to go to Fort William, now. They won't have anywhere to stay, so they'll be sleeping rough."

"Where will you take them?" Sirius asked them. Bill and Charlie shared another look.

"We're not sure. Mum reckons that the ministry will give them a fair trial. They won't. There's no proof that Ginny was possessed and Dumbledore's word isn't worth much to the Wizengamot at the moment. And we don't really trust him all that much right now," Bill explained. Sirius couldn't agree more. "Where do you think we should take them?"

"We'll buy a house, in secret. I'll give you the money," Sirius suggested. "Only the three of us will know about it. I know both of you can do wards, probably much better than I can, so we'll set it up perfectly. They'll need somewhere to be safe."

"Perfect," Charlie agreed. "We're gonna go. Cover for us, will you?" Sirius nodded.

"Bill, Charlie, thank you," Sirius told them, his voice catching. They both nodded curtly at him and left.

 **XXX**

Harry and Ginny had decided that, despite their exhaustion, they didn't have time to stop for sleep, not in Fort William anyway. They'd made a plan in the alleyway. They needed to get to Edinburgh. There was a magical community there and a shopping street, including a branch of Gringotts. They would wait at the Fort William train station, under the cloak and slip onto the train.

It had worked perfectly. They huddled in the bike storage area. Their first train was to Glasgow, and then to Edinburgh. There wasn't a direct train. They'd been on the train for almost four hours when it finally arrived in Glasgow. Harry and Ginny were ready to go, having been paying attention to the announcements. They were the first people off the train, knowing that if they got caught up in a crowd they might lose the cloak and be revealed.

As quickly as they could without revealing themselves, they bustled to where the screens with the train times were. There was a train to Edinburgh from Glasgow very frequently, from platform 3. The platform was busy. Harry gave Ginny a look. The invisibility cloak was very helpful, of course, but in a crowd, they would be immediately obvious.

"We'll wait for a later train," Harry whispered. Ginny nodded and they scurried off the platform. Glasgow railway station was busy: the perfect time to do some stealing.

Harry left Ginny at the girl's bathroom and found a Starbucks. He grabbed each of them a bottled smoothie of some sort and a sandwich, stuffing them in the bag. There was a small chocolate shop, so Harry took a few bars of chocolate each. He was building up a resistance to the guilt of stealing every time he heard someone talking about "those awful school kids". Once he'd built up a meal for them both, Harry returned and picked Ginny up from where she was hiding in the toilets.

They found another alleyway by the side of the station and settled down together under the cloak. Harry let Ginny pick which sandwich she'd like first. They ate their meal in silence and then mutually agreed to have a nap. Using their raincoats as pillows, they leant against the brick wall and their exhaustion claimed them.

 **XXX**

It was dark when they finally reached Edinburgh at eleven o'clock at night. All in all, it hadn't been too difficult to get there. Their major problem, they realised was getting out of the station. There were ticket barriers, and obviously they didn't have a ticket. Despite the time of night, there was a man stood watching. "What are we going to do?" Ginny whispered.

Harry looked at the man. He was bald and quite fat. Harry reckoned he could run faster than him. He nodded to himself. "What?" Ginny questioned.

"I'm gonna distract that guy. You get under the barrier and wait for me on the other side. Don't worry. I'm a fast runner," he assured her. Ginny protested, but Harry was out from under the cloak too fast. He gave Ginny enough time to get under the barrier, wincing as he saw it move slightly as she got underneath. He thought he might have seen her shoe peek out at the bottom as she got away.

"Are you alright there, laddy?" the man asked him and Harry nodded contritely. The inspector looked at him strangely and, in the second that the man looked away, Harry sprinted, reaching the barrier before the inspector began to move. He swung under the barrier and continued to run. As he did so, he saw another inspector, this one younger and more agile.

"Fuck," Harry muttered, running even faster. He'd find Ginny in a little bit. He had to get away from this guy first. Harry was more grateful than ever for Dudley chasing him when he was little. Harry had become an excellent runner because of it. He just kept running. He knew the inspector would give up eventually.

After what must have been ten minutes of running, Harry took a sharp turn left and noticed that the inspector wasn't behind him anymore. He didn't know when he lost him but all that mattered was that he had. The problem now, however, was that he had to go back to Ginny and to the station, where the inspector had undoubtedly returned.

Harry was creeping towards the station, his eyes well open for either of the inspectors. He was about three minutes from the station when he got slugged in the arm. "Ow, fuck," he swore. Ginny lifted the invisibility cloak slightly and Harry slipped underneath it. "What the hell?" he asked her.

"We're a team in this and you decided to risk yourself! What the hell was I going to do if you were caught? We've only just got away from one police station - we don't need to go into another!" she told him harshly. Harry put his hand on her arm.

"Gin, I'm sorry," he said, "but it was the only thing I could think of doing at the time." Ginny harrumphed. "We should find somewhere to sleep for the night," he suggested softly. Ginny nodded once. Harry could've cursed himself for pissing her off so early in the game.

 **XXX**

A bench was not the comfiest place to spend the night, Ginny considered as she woke up. She supposed she should be grateful, however, that it hadn't rained. They really would've been fucked then. She pulled away from Harry. He was still sleeping peacefully. He looked younger when he slept, she considered.

While she watched Harry sleep, she thought through her plan again. It wasn't great. There were so many risks, but they needed money and Harry had it. If they could convince the goblins not to send for the ministry at the sight of them, then they could have full access to the bank. She hadn't proposed this to Harry yet, having only thought of it as she was trying to get to sleep in the cold last night. She wasn't sure how he would feel and, if he thought it was too much of a risk, she would understand. It was a risk.

"Gin," Harry muttered as he woke.

"Morning," she replied with half a smile.

"Have you forgiven me yet?" he asked her sleepily. Ginny nodded.

"Just don't do that again, okay? I can't do this without you," she reminded him.

The two of them set off for Edinburgh Castle under the cloak as usual. Ginny recalled Harry's reaction when she'd told him that the magical part of Edinburgh could be found underneath Edinburgh Castle. King David I of Scotland had developed it when he had built the castle, being a wizard himself. There was a secret entrance on the east of the castle that was visible exclusively to those who had magic in their blood.

The castle was beautiful and Ginny thought she might have liked to visit it if they hadn't been in such a situation. She'd always been interested in history and had loved reading books about it when she was little. Her uncle Fabian had been an avid reader and had given all of his books to his sister when he'd been murdered. Most of them were in Ginny's room at home now.

It wasn't hard to find the entrance to Castle Street. There was a little wooden sign sticking out of an alleyway. Harry laughed quietly to Ginny as they entered, "I feel as though we're living in alleyways." Ginny had to agree. They wandered down the dank alleyway for a few minutes, before it gave way to a beautiful cobbled street with shops lining each side. The street was long and widened at the end, where there was a pretty courtyard, decorated with bunting. It was quiet, being early in the morning, but there were a few witches and wizards wandering about.

Harry and Ginny walked slowly underneath the cloak, careful not to even show a foot. They were heading for Gringotts. She'd explained her plan to Harry on the way and he'd agreed. It was the only way they could survive. It was a risk they'd have to take. If it failed, they'd find a way out of it. She knew they would.

Noticing Gringotts on the street Ginny saw that it wasn't quite as grand as the Gringotts in London. In fact, it rather blended in with the rest of the shops on the street. Inside was a lot larger than the outside, of course, and it matched the London Gringotts to a tee. To either side of them, there were goblins weighing coins and jewels. It was grandeur to the extreme.

They reached the desk at the front and took off the cloak. "We'd like to visit vault 7604, please," Harry said, his voice shaking noticeably. Ginny had explained to Harry that you could visit his vault at any branch of Gringotts. Harry had been mindblown.

The goblin looked up from his book of numbers. He looked surprised to see them stood there. Clearly, the goblin world had become aware of what had happened. "Yes, come with me," the goblin said, sweeping Harry and Ginny to the opposite side that they would usually go to. Quite quickly, they realised they weren't heading to Harry's vault.

The goblin knocked on an ornate office door. "Enter," a voice said from within. The door swung open without anyone touching it. Inside, another goblin, this one with bigger ears and posher clothing, was sat at a desk, looking up curiously.

"Frodrick, sir, the owner of vault 7604 has arrived," the goblin that had brought them informed the new goblin. The new goblin nodded.

"Thank you, Godnok. You may return to your duties."

Godnok nodded. He ushered Harry and Ginny into the room and then left, the door closing behind him. Ginny's hands shook. This could be their end.

"Mister Potter, is it?" Frodrick asked Harry. Ginny watched as Harry nodded, introducing himself to the goblin. "And this must be Ginevra Weasley?"

"Yes, sir," Ginny replied. Frodrick nodded.

"Please, take a seat," he said, gesturing to the two leather chairs in front of his desk. Confused, Harry and Ginny sat down. "Mister Potter, I received a notice two days ago from the Ministry of Magic, requesting that we would cut off your finances from your Potter vault, so that you would not be able to access them. The Potter vault was originally set up at this branch of Gringotts and, therefore, only we would be able to disallow you from accessing your vault. Gringotts has a policy when it comes to cutting off criminal finances: we require proof," Frodrick explained, looking straight at Harry. Ginny watched the goblin curiously.

"Now, I asked the ministry for this proof. They know that that is our policy. They could not provide sufficient proof. What they had was circumstantial at best and, so, I did not cut off your finances. The London branch received a similar notice for your trust fund, but, as it is connected to the Potter vault, they could do nothing unless we did," Frodrick continued. Ginny's heart lifted. They could use his money. They could survive.

"I'm sorry," Harry interrupted, "but what do you mean by the Potter vault?"

Frodrick shook his head. "I forgot, Mister Potter, that you were not raised by wizards. Wealthy families, such as the Potters, have a family vault and then individual trust funds. When you were born, your parents set up your trust fund. When he was born, your father's parents would have done the same. Your mother's vault, before she married your father, was set up by her parents on her first visit to Gringotts. When your father reached his majority, at seventeen, his trust fund was converted into his own vault, still separate from the Potter vault. However, when Fleamont Potter, your grandfather, died, James' vault was merged with the Potter vault because he was now Head of House Potter. Upon your majority, your trust fund will do the same, because you are Head of House Potter."

Harry was looking overwhelmed. Ginny understood all of this. It was the way of the wizarding world, but, obviously, Harry had never been taught about it. "Can I access the Potter vault now?" Harry asked. Frodrick nodded.

"You can, but we advise all minors to use their trust fund until they are seventeen." Harry nodded slowly. "But, Mister Potter, the purpose of this meeting was to inform you that you may access your money for as long as you like. The goblins do not care about crime within the wizarding world, but we have an agreement with the ministry."

"Just so you know, sir, you won't ever receive proof, because I didn't do it," Harry explained vehemently to the goblin in front of them. The goblin nodded with a scary smile. Ginny was quite disconcerted seeing a goblin smile; it was quite off-putting.

"Whether you did or not is of no concern to us. If I may inquire, Mister Potter, what are your plans now?"

"Well, we haven't really thought that far ahead," Harry said, ruffling his hair. "We just knew that we needed to get some money and then we're going to find somewhere to go."

"If I may make a suggestion?" Frodrick said. Harry and Ginny both nodded eagerly. "You should purchase a property. You have more than enough money, Mister Potter, and it would allow you to hide more sufficiently. I assume that your eventual plan is to leave the country?" Harry nodded. "You'll need a passport each then," Frodrick continued.

"Yes, do you have any idea where we could get our birth certificates from?" Harry asked. Ginny had no idea what they were talking about now. What was a passport? She did know, however, that birth certificates were kept in the bank.

"They're kept here, Harry," Ginny muttered. Harry looked at the goblin in surprise and Frodrick nodded.

"There is a special procedure for magical passports. I can discreetly send for them if you would like?"

Ginny thought they might have met the kindest goblin that existed. They agreed to him sorting out their passports and both sat for a few moments while the goblin took a picture of each of them with a click of his fingers.

"Now, onto property, it's probably a good idea that you buy a few properties…"

 **XXX**

Harry and Ginny spent over three hours with Frodrick, organising four properties across the UK and several fake identities. He helped them set up a bank account under a set of fake names that they would never actually use. Their passports were sent off under the names Clara Didsbury and William Masterson and Frodrick had edited the colour of their hair and eyes in the pictures.

Finally, they left the bank, with an address in hand for the house they had purchased in Edinburgh. Their first stop, however, was a beauty salon. The hairdresser almost weeped when Ginny told her that she wanted to die her hair a brown colour. If she was honest, Ginny nearly cried herself when she saw her hair for the first time. It was nice, cut to her shoulders and a pretty sort of honey brown with a full fringe, but she didn't feel like herself anymore. She didn't feel like a Weasley. Harry's hair was cut short and dyed a light brown. He purchased a gel to spike it up as much as he could. It was never going to lie flat so he may as well try it the other way.

After their hair was done, Harry left and headed to the options to get some contact lenses and new glasses. Ginny stayed at the beauty salon. They'd agreed that they needed to look older than they were. So, Ginny had her eyebrows waxed and tinted. They waxed her whole body, in fact, and then rubbed her with some sort of lotion. It smelled nice. Then, they put "semi-permanent" eyelashes on her. She didn't really understand what that meant but it looked nice.

She left the salon, after paying an inordinate amount, feeling not very like herself. Her next stop was a makeup store across the road. Harry had told her that it would probably make her look a lot older than she was. In the wizarding world, makeup was seen as quite promiscuous but Harry assured her that muggles disagreed, that it was the done thing.

Wandering about from station to station, Ginny felt out of her depth. She had no idea what any of these things did. "Can I help you?" a woman asked her in a deep Scottish brogue. Ginny smiled at the woman.

"My mum has given me quite a bit of money to get some makeup, but I have no idea what I'm looking for," Ginny lied, laughing at herself. The sales assistant smiled at her and began to show her around the station. She showed Ginny how to apply each product and Ginny left with makeup costing over £500. She was happy with the way she looked, though. She felt older than she was.

She found Harry in the clothes shop next door where they said they'd meet. He smiled when he saw her. "You look beautiful," he told her honestly. Ginny smiled at him. They browsed the department store for hours, stopping for lunch at the cafe. Ginny was quite enjoying having all this money. When she'd mentioned to Harry the money she'd been spending, he told her that he didn't care about his money and that, if it made her happy, she could spend it all.

Ginny tried on outfit after outfit, finding that she rather enjoyed muggle fashions. She became more daring with her choices as she went on, choosing skirts above the knee and necklines that weren't straight up to her neck. She bought bikinis and shorts and heels, and even pretty knickers and bras. She found herself enjoying it more than she would have imagined.

It was nearly five o'clock by the time they left, laden with shopping bags. They found a bus that would take them to near where they now lived. It wasn't far from the centre and, if they didn't have so many bags, Ginny thought they might have walked. The bus was full of people. Harry paid for both of them, because Ginny told him that she didn't really know how muggle money worked.

They got off the bus at the stop for Millar Place and dragged themselves to the house. Ginny's arms hurt by the time they reached number 22. Harry grinned at her as he pulled the key out of his pocket and unlocked the door. Pushing it open, Harry bustled in and dropped his bags down. Ginny did the same, closing the door behind her. She leaned back against the door and sighed. Home.


	4. Chapter 4

**28th April 1996**

The house was empty. It was nice, but it was empty and bare. Ginny had expected it to be full of furniture but now she realised that was silly really. It was quite an odd house. The kitchen was upstairs and the bedrooms were downstairs, but Ginny didn't mind that. She'd always lived in an odd house.

There were two bedrooms, one quite a lot bigger than the other one. Ginny had insisted that Harry had the big one. He'd paid for the house, hadn't he? And, anyway, the smaller bedroom was bigger than Ginny's at the Burrow. They had a bathroom each and there was a little utility room by the stairs. Upstairs, there was just one room: the kitchen, dining room and living room all in one. The kitchen installed was white and shiny. The rest of the room was empty. It looked like a dance studio.

"Right, what should we do?" Harry asked.

"Food."

 **XXX**

The muggle supermarket was revolutionary to Ginny. There just weren't such things in the wizarding world. There were food shops, but not like this. If there were, at least, Ginny had never been to one. They grew most of their food at home anyway. Ginny was pushing the trolley excitedly. They'd walked to the supermarket from their house, after having gotten changed into some of their new clothes. Ginny was wearing a pretty denim skirt and a white top with a baggy cardigan. They were the nicest clothes she'd ever owned.

Harry kept laughing at her exuberance but this was all new to Ginny and she was trying to get as much enjoyment out of everything as possible. It was all she could do to distract herself from the facts of their life at the moment.

They had a large fridge and freezer in their kitchen and Harry had declared to Ginny that they were going to fill it to the brim. There were lots of foods that Ginny had never heard of that went into their trolley. They got fruit and vegetables, and bread and cereal. Harry threw chocolate and crisps and all sorts of snacks. In the end, they got two trolleys and both were full. It was only a five minute walk home, but there were too many bags for one trip.

Harry took some bags to the house and then came back and waited while Ginny went and took some. Then, they took the last lot home together. The kitchen was full. They'd bought a toaster and a kettle and some other little accessories. As soon as they'd bought the house, they'd said they were going to make it their own. They needed to feel at home and not constantly as though they were running.

"Well, at least we've got things in the kitchen now," Ginny laughed. Harry grinned at her. There was an IKEA just a bus ride away, so that was going to be their job tomorrow. For now, though, they were going to settle down on the carpeted bedroom floor and sleep.

 **XXX**

"If you were two teenagers running away from the ministry, where would you go?"

It was the question on all of their minds, but Charlie had voiced it. They'd turned Sirius' mother's office into a war room for finding Harry and Ginny. A map had been stuck up on the wall and their last known location (Fort William) had a pin stuck through it.

"This is useless. We have no idea where they'd go," Bill sighed. "I have to go and meet Fleur. Charlie and I will go to Gringotts tomorrow, Sirius, and sort out the house for them. At least it'll be doing something productive," Bill grumbled.

Sirius sighed and gestured to Charlie to follow Bill out of the room. Charlie and Sirius settled in the kitchen and Sirius opened a bottle of firewhiskey. "I don't think I've ever felt so useless in all of my life," Sirius said, taking the first sip from his glass of firewhiskey.

"Sirius, we will find them," Charlie reassured the older man. "We'll find them and get them safe." Sirius nodded, but Charlie's words didn't make him feel any better. Harry and Ginny were surely sleeping on the streets and there was nothing any of them could do because they had no idea where they'd gone. "If only they'd just stayed in Fort William," Charlie sighed. "They must have known we'd come and find them."

Sirius shook his head. "I don't think that Harry's ever had an adult he can rely on. He's not used to it."

"Surely he knows he can rely on you?" Charlie asked incredulously. Sirius took a sip of his whiskey.

"I don't know, Charlie. I was supposed to be there for him when he was a baby and I ran off to get revenge instead and then I was sent to prison and he was sent to his relatives. He- they didn't treat him well there. I don't know exactly how bad it was. He won't talk about it, but he flinches if I touch him. He flinches if I tell him I love him. He never says it back. I don't know, Charlie. You've seen him. His clothes are too big. He's too skinny. I don't think they fed him properly. Every time I think about it, Merlin, I just want to go to their house and kill every one of them.

"Petunia, that's his aunt, she was always a bitch," Sirius swore, taking a glug of his whiskey. "Lily asked her to be her chief bridesmaid, because she was her sister. She refused and then she didn't even turn up to the wedding. Lily was devastated. Petunia had gotten married before Lily and her parents had forced her to invite Lil to the wedding, but I don't think she spoke to her the whole time she was there. I can't understand why Dumbledore put Harry there," he said, shaking his head and finishing his drink. He stared at the table as he poured himself another.

"Supposedly, there's some sort of protection there," Sirius scoffed. "Protected him well enough from the monsters outside, but what about the ones inside?"

Charlie swore softly. "Mum's always tried to do her best by Harry. She knows his relatives aren't the best, but I don't think she knows quite how bad they are. Poor kid," Charlie said, shaking his head. Sirius agreed, throwing back all of his whiskey in one.

 **XXX**

 **29th April 1996**

"Harry, are you sure that's how that works?" Ginny asked a bit meekly from the corner. Harry was trying to build the first bed they'd bought that morning. He was getting very frustrated and Ginny was rather worried about him. She'd offered to help a million times but she just felt like she was getting in the way every time she tried.

"Do you want to come and read the instructions?" Harry asked her angrily. Ginny sighed, irritated. He'd been in this mood all day and she was so fed up of it. She knew that the situation was hardly ideal but it wasn't like they were on the streets. They had access to money and a home.

Ginny winced as she heard some pieces of wood clatter to the floor. Harry swore loudly. "Harry, let me hel-"

"It's fine!" he shouted at her. Ginny bit her lip to keep herself from talking. There was no use when he was in this state. She pushed herself off the wall she had been leaning on and walked out of the room, not even glancing at him once.

Calm and collected, she took one step up at a time until she reached the kitchen. She closed the door behind her and only then did she begin to sob.

She cried for Harry and for the way he made her feel. She cried for Hogwarts and the life she'd left behind. She cried for her family and the fear that she'd never see them again. But, most of all, she cried for herself. For the girl who had been stupid enough to write to a diary who had written back and the girl who had started this whole mess.

 **XXX**

Harry could hear Ginny crying, but there was nothing he could do. He'd only make it worse. He made everything worse. He was the one who'd lost the contact mirror, so now they couldn't talk to their families. They had no way of knowing what was going on, no way of knowing whether or not the ministry had any idea where they were. They didn't know what Voldemort was doing. They didn't know if their family were even alive after the ambush on the police station.

Sirius had been there. Harry couldn't believe he'd taken the risk. Why expose himself just to come and get Harry? He could've been caught. He could've been killed.

Harry shook himself. He'd been thinking too much on that. He stared down at the instructions and decided to start again. That's what Hermione would advise him to do.

Picking up the first piece and the right screw, Harry began again. The sooner he got this done, the sooner he could be done with it.

 **XXX**

Ginny heard the door slam and furrowed her brow. She'd been sat in the kitchen, binge-eating biscuits, for about three-quarters of an hour once she'd stopped herself crying. She wondered if Harry had been able to hear her. She decided she didn't care.

Curious as to why the door had slammed, Ginny ran downstairs. "Harry?" she called. In her bedroom, she found her bed fully built, but no Harry. Peeking out of the window, she caught a glimpse of Harry as he turned the corner onto the main road. Rolling her eyes and shaking her head, Ginny stroked her hand along the headboard.

She sighed. If Harry was gone, maybe she'd have a better chance of actually building some of the furniture they'd bought that morning. To start though, she wanted to actually have a bed she could lie on. Heaving the mattress up, she threw it onto her bed and began to fit the sheet to it. It was more difficult than she'd anticipated. Her mother had always done this for her, with magic.

Frustrated, Ginny peeled the sheet away from the corner she'd started and tried again at another corner. She supposed she must have looked rather comical as she struggled with her bed. The problems she was having reminded her that she wasn't brought up in this world. She would have bet that Harry could fit a sheet in seconds. She was going to have troubles in the muggle world, she could see that.

Embarrassed by the amount of time it took her to fit the sheet, Ginny was glad that Harry had left. While she knew he would never laugh at her inability to do something that she'd never done before, she didn't want him to worry that she wasn't going to be able to blend in sufficiently with muggles. She was going to have to work on that, a lot. It wasn't going to be her lack of knowledge that got them caught.

An hour later, Ginny had found that making a bed the muggle way was not a simple task. Fitting the sheet was one thing, but getting the cover to fit the duvet was quite another. But, now, her bed was fully set up and looking rather pretty. She'd chosen simple striped turquoise and white bed covers, as well as matching curtains - something that she wasn't even going to attempt until Harry was home to help her.

With that done, she made a start on the chest of drawers. The clothes she'd purchased a few days ago were sat, still in their bags, on her floor. The chest of drawers were white to match the rest of the furniture she'd bought. She was rather pleased with it all. It was much more matched and pretty than her old bedroom.

Sighing, she considered how much she would rather be in her old bedroom right now. She missed her family more than she could say. She was used to being away from them of course: she spent ten months out of the year at Hogwarts. It was not knowing when she'd see them again that made her miss them even more.

Chest of drawers half built, Ginny began to wonder where on earth Harry had gone and when he would be coming back. A horrible voice in Ginny's head asked her whether he'd be coming back at all. Ginny shook it from her mind. Harry had promised that they would do this together. He was just struggling. Ginny understood that.

As she looked out of the window and saw the rain, she bit her lip. Where on earth was he?

 **XXX**

"Arthur, how are you?" Kingsley asked the older man. Arthur Weasley looked broken. Severe bags under his eyes, he didn't seem to have slept at all since Ginny went missing. He looked up at Kingsley and noticed Tonks stood beside him. He motioned to the two of them to sit. They took seats opposite from him at the table in the kitchen of Grimmauld Place.

"I've been better, Kingsley," Arthur said quietly. Kingsley nodded understandingly. "What can you tell me about the investigation?"

Kingsley pulled the folder from his robes. "Obviously, their last known location is Fort William. We've tracked them using muggle CCTV from the police station to an alleyway. We don't see them come out of the alleyway, but we see Ginny suddenly appear on a bench on her own later on. She disappears again about ten minutes later. My bosses have the theory that they are using an invisibility cloak. Could that be possible?"

Arthur nodded wearily. "Harry has one. It was his father's." Kingsley noted that piece of information.

"And it's not been found in his possessions?" Tonks checked. Arthur shook his head. Tonks swore softly and Kingsley agreed. At Arthur's questioning look, Tonks explained, "the Ministry have developed a sort of spell that uses body heat to be able to tell where a person is in a memory. They can't use it unless there's proof that an invisibility cloak is in use by a criminal, for some sort of privacy reason, but they asked-"

Tonks paused here and Kingsley knew why. Arthur would not take this information lightly. "They asked Percy," Kingsley finished for Tonks. Arthur let out a choked sob and Kingsley felt his heart clench for his friend. "They asked Percy if Harry had an invisibility cloak and Percy confirmed their suspicions. Aurors will be attempting to track them through memories of people in the area. It's not a quick technique, but we are thinking that it will lead us to where they've gone. I wish there was something we could do to stop it, Arthur, but with Ministry interest in the Order so high, there just isn't."

Arthur nodded. "I understand, Kingsley. Thank you for this, though. At least I know they're alive and together. Please let me know of any developments."

Kingsley agreed and, with Tonks, he departed, retiring for the night.

 **XXX**

Hogwarts was not the same without Harry. There weren't so many laughs. Ron was funny, of course he was, but Hermione didn't seem to spend as much time with him now that Harry was gone. She didn't understand it at all. It wasn't anything she could pin down either. They still sat together at meals and in the common room at night, but something was different.

Harry being gone was madness. She could feel his missing presence all the time. It was like missing a brother. She was sure that Harry felt the same about her, but she wished she'd told him how she felt all the same. Having put a few things together, she rather thought Harry hadn't been told that he was loved much in his life.

With missing Harry and things being odd with Ron, Hermione was throwing herself into her work more than ever. She wouldn't skip meals or anything, but her free time was spent doing extra work, reading, rather than spending time with her boys. But she wasn't happy.

She'd always loved work. Reading was her passion, but she needed her friends. She needed that company, those laughs. Without them, life was becoming very dull. Maybe she needed to make new friends. The thought of a best friend that wasn't Harry was abhorrent, but it would have to happen at some point.

Harry wasn't the only thing that had changed though. With Umbridge dead, Dumbledore had employed a new Defence Against the Dark Arts professor. Fudge had insisted it be someone from the ministry, so Hestia Jones had been employed. Hermione had met her a few times when she was working with the Order over the summer and she was very nice. She was proving to be much better than Umbridge at any rate.

So, they'd decided to end the DA. It was difficult to carry on without Harry. Less people attended and Hermione wasn't a natural leader like Harry. Professor Jones was competent enough that it wasn't really necessary anymore.

Hermione shook herself out of her contemplative thoughts and focussed back on her book. It was three o'clock in the morning. She was relatively tired. Going to bed at 10, Hermione had had four hours sleep before an awful nightmare had awoken her. Since Harry had left, Hermione was plagued with nightmares about him, about Ginny, about Hogwarts. She'd not had a full night sleep since he'd gone.

"Hermione?" a voice interrupted her thoughts. She looked up. It was Fred. This was clear by the large F on his pyjama top. He rubbed at his eye and meandered over to her. "What are you doing up?"

"I-" Hermione was rather embarrassed by the fact that she wasn't able to sleep. She was too afraid after a nightmare so she would come down to the common room where it was lighter. Her fear of the dark had never really gone since she was a child. "I had a nightmare," she admitted reluctantly. Fred nodded and sat down next to her.

"Wanna talk about it?" he asked her kindly. Hermione was almost shocked. While she didn't think that Fred was cruel, she thought he'd tease her at the very least.

"Just about Harry, you know? I can't stop thinking about him, about whether he's safe, about whether he's hungry. He's had such a difficult year and I don't know- oh, I don't know," she finished morosely. Fred grabbed her legs and pulled them over his lap. He shuffled closer to her.

"Hermione," he started, "Harry is the strongest person I know. He's also the most stubborn. He's not gonna get caught. It's Harry and he's with Ginny. They're gonna look after each other and we're gonna stay here and be absolutely petrified that they're not okay. That's not gonna change, but we can't let it affect our lives. That's not what they would have wanted."

Hermione nodded. "I know."

"Next time you have a nightmare, come up to my room, okay? My bed is the first one on the right. Sometimes we just need to feel safe," he said softly. Hermione nodded, but knew she never would. That sounded like prime blackmail material.

"Thanks, Fred," she whispered.

 **XXX**

Ginny was furious. And exhausted. It was half past three in the morning. Harry had left over six hours ago and he'd not returned. She hadn't wanted to go out and look for him just in case he came back, but at this point, she wouldn't whether he'd been hurt.

She pulled on a jacket and some boots and set out into the night. It was pitch black, but the lamp posts lit her way. Despite it being the warmer side of spring, Ginny was freezing. Arms crossed, she walked as quickly as possible, her head flicking from left to right. Maybe this was a stupid idea. She had no idea where Harry was. He could've walked for miles.

After walking for twenty minutes, Ginny realised she'd come in a circle and ended up at the supermarket they'd visited the other day. She could see the 24/7 sign lit up across the road. The supermarket reminded her of Harry. They'd had so much fun going around the shop. It was the first time she'd properly laughed since they'd left Hogwarts.

Ginny found a bench and sat down. She felt like crying. Getting the house had felt like everything was going to be okay. It felt like they were safe. Why did Harry have to go and ruin it? How were they ever going to succeed at this if he didn't want to be around her? Tears came to her eyes, but she blinked them back rapidly. She would not cry.

It was rather scary on her own out here. Her dad had always told her not to walk around on her own at night. It was dangerous. Sighing and realising the truth to her father's words, Ginny stood. As she was about to turn to go home, she saw him. He was stood on the other side of the road, staring at her. She thought that he must've been rather surprised to see her.

"Harry!" she shouted, beginning to cross the road.

She was so preoccupied with finally getting to Harry that she didn't notice the car hurtling down the badly lit road.


	5. Chapter 5

**29th April 1996**

It was the scariest moment of Harry's life. Time slowed as the car slammed into Ginny. Her head turned to the car, eyes wide. She put her hands out as it slammed into her. She screamed. The driver jumped out of the car and Harry ran over, not looking himself whether any cars were coming. Unlike Ginny, Harry was lucky.

"Do you know her?" the driver asked Harry urgently, taking out his mobile phone and dialing 999. Harry nodded desperately. He scooped her up in his arms, his muscles protesting slightly. There was a bench that she'd been sat on just to the side of the road. He laid her down there and listened as the driver asked for an ambulance. Unable to do anything except stare at the damage the car had caused, Harry knelt beside her.

Her ankle was bent in an odd direction and her t-shirt had ridden up, revealing bruises that were already blooming on her ribs. Harry didn't know how long he sat there by her side, just staring at her, wondering what on earth he had been thinking when he'd left. He'd seen the car just as it came close to her. Maybe if he'd shouted there would've been enough time-

Sirens interrupted his thoughts. They pulled over where he was. It was all a blur. The flashing lights. The paramedics asking him his name, her name. Ginny was taken into the ambulance and Harry followed, leaving the distraught driver behind. Inside an ambulance. An ambulance had once visited their primary school, Harry distractedly remembered. The paramedics were doing things to Ginny. They were looking at her, her leg, her rib cage.

Words he didn't understand. No one speaking to him. Staring at his perfect Ginny. All his fault.

All his fault.

 **XXX**

Harry sat on the chair beside her, a three-month-old magazine in his hand, hanging limply. He'd stopped looking at it as soon as the nurse had left the room. He was breaking apart. They'd been gone from Hogwarts for four days and, already, he'd failed. Ginny was lying in a hospital bed, asleep after her operation. He'd promised to look after her. They'd promised to look after each other and he'd failed her. She'd done everything for him. She'd done what she'd promised. And, despite all of that, despite his promise, here he was, sat beside her.

The hospital was asking for her name, her identity, her age. Harry hadn't told them anything. This was the one thing he could do. He could do everything possible to make sure they weren't caught while they were here. He was going to protect her properly from now on. He was going to look after her.

It had come out of nowhere. It had been raining. No wonder she hadn't seen it. Harry should've seen it. Harry should've known that it would come. It haunted him now. Her scream. The crunch of her bones. All his fault. All of it.

Harry stroked her hair back from her face. She looked so peaceful asleep. She'd been in so much pain before they'd put her to sleep and it had physically hurt him to see her in that way. Now, though, she looked completely calm and at peace with herself and with the world. He wondered how she'd react when she woke up and there were all sorts of tubes sticking out of her. She wouldn't have encountered any of it before, of course.

Harry sighed. Had it only been four days? Four days ago, he'd been at Hogwarts with Ron and Hermione and everyone. Four days ago, he'd been free and innocent and safe. Now, look what had happened. He wondered if it would ever go back to normal again. He wondered if he and Ginny could survive this, if they could stay out of prison forever. He didn't know if they could, but he was going to try. He had to protect her. He'd promised her, he'd promised her family, that he'd look after her. That they'd look after each other.

And then she ran across a road to him. And now she was in hospital. The doctors had told him what was wrong with her. Four broken ribs. A broken ankle. A collapsed lung.

If he'd shouted her, telling her where he was when he'd first seen her, then she'd have run across the road earlier, when there were less cars. If he'd explained the danger of the road to her fully, maybe she wouldn't have run. If he'd run to her instead of her to him, then the car would've gone past before he'd got to that side of the road. If he'd not left in the first place, she wouldn't have been out of the house at three o'clock in the morning. The opportunity for a car to hit her wouldn't have been there.

Everything was his fault. Why did he continue to fuck up so massively? He stared at the broken girl on the bed and whispered his apology to her.

 **XXX**

 **2nd May 1996**

Harry slept by her side. He ate by her side. He held her hand. He didn't leave the room. The only times he was apart from her were during operations. There were multiple. They had to set her ankle and put a rod in it for the first one and then they had to do something with her lung. Something happened to it. Harry didn't understand all the medical jargon. All he needed to know was that she was okay.

For the first few days, they wouldn't tell him. She was on life support. She was being fed oxygen. He asked them if she was going to be okay and they wouldn't give him an answer. It was the most desperate he had ever felt. All he needed to know was that she was going to live. He didn't care in what state. As long as she was alive, he could protect her, he could make sure she was happy and safe.

If she died, Harry didn't know if he'd be able to go on. He rather thought that he would give himself up to the aurors. If Ginny died, he'd have let down the whole Weasley family, his best friend, the couple who had taken him in when they hadn't even known him. He'd been able to save her when he was 12 - why couldn't he do it now?

His major disadvantage now was the lack of magic. Even when he'd only been 12, he'd had a wand. And help from a phoenix and a magical hat. Now, he felt as though he'd lost a limb. He regularly reached for his wand. Staring at Ginny's broken body, the only thing he wanted to do was pull out his wand and heal her. Not that he even knew the spells.

It wasn't as though he didn't have a wand, either. Unlike Ginny, whose wand was in auror custody, Harry's remained constantly in his pocket. Maybe this was worse, because he wanted to use it. He wanted to use it so much, but he couldn't. If he did, the whole ministry would find them in seconds. Ginny had tried to explain the magic behind the trace, but neither of them fully understood it. All he knew was that it was not worth the risk.

XXX

Ginny's eyes flickered open. She was in a clinically white room, although was it a room if there were no walls? All she could see for what seemed like miles and miles was white. It was as though her whole life had been consumed by one colour. It was very disconcerting. She was even dressed in a white shift. She'd never been so grateful for her bright hair as it grounded her.

Was this a dream? It was a very odd dream. She couldn't remember ever having one like it. Looking around was making her head feel funny, so she sat down and folded her knees into herself, waiting to wake up.

"Ginny," she heard a soft voice from behind her. Ginny furrowed her brow and twisted her neck around to look. A woman stood there, long ginger hair and piercing green eyes. There was no doubt in Ginny's mind that this was Lily Potter.

"Lily," Ginny whispered. Lily nodded. It struck Ginny suddenly just how young Lily had been when she gave her life to save Harry's. Ginny wondered whether she would have the strength.

Lily enveloped Ginny with her arms. The other woman wasn't much taller than Ginny, so they lay their heads on one another's shoulders. Before she knew it, Ginny was crying, sobbing. Lily just continued to hug her, to hold her.

Ginny didn't know how long they stayed like that for, holding one another. It could've been hours, could've been days. When Lily eventually pulled away, she said, "I would have loved to have had you as my daughter-in-law. Tell my son I love him."

And then she disappeared. Before Ginny could feel alone, however, the white began to melt away. She was waking up.

 **XXX**

Ginny's eyes flickered open.

Harry looked away. And then looked back.

Her eyes were open. "Ginny," he gasped desperately. She struggled as she attempted to talk. He shook his head vigorously at her. "Don't try to speak. I'll get the nurse."

Harry raced out of the room and to the nurse's station. "She's awake," he panted to the nurse sat there. She was the same nurse who had been looking after Ginny for the past few days. Harry appreciated the fact that she stood up at a similar pace as he had when he'd discovered that she was awake. Back in her room within minutes, they found a Ginny who was petrified and didn't understand what was going on. She was struggling against the tubes in her arms and the oxygen mask on her face. The catheter, too, had probably been an unwelcome surprise.

"Please give me a name," the nurse asked Harry as she desperately tried to calm her.

Harry racked his brain. What was the name they'd put on the passport? She'd know that name even if it wouldn't comfort her. He was sure it began with a C. He was William, he knew that much. C. Was it Chloe? Carla? Clara!

"Clara," Harry said, faux reluctantly.

The nurse smiled triumphantly. "Clara, Clara," she cooed, trying to get Ginny to calm down.

"Clara," Harry began, "don't try to fight the machines. They're helping you."

Harry's voice seemed to get her to calm down and the nurse encouraged him to carry on, so he explained to her where they were and what all the machines around her were doing. Eventually, she calmed down, her eyes locked on his. The nurse completed some checks during this time and Harry was gratified when she gave him a nod - Ginny was doing fine.

"Right, Miss Clara, you're doing well. You're not out of the woods yet, but you're on your way. I'll leave you with your attentive boyfriend here," the nurse said, after adjusting the notes at the end of Ginny's bed. "Don't hesitate to give me a shout."

Harry didn't care that the nurse had called him her boyfriend. He could understand why she'd got that impression. He'd been fierce in his protection of Ginny the past few days. Now, he took her hand and squeezed it, so grateful that she was finally able to squeeze it back. "Go back to sleep, Gin," he whispered. "I'll be here when you wake up."

 **XXX**

 **6th May**

"Thank you, Severus," Dumbledore said as Snape finished his report on the Death Eaters. The one thing the irritating prick was useful for. If Sirius had to admire Snape for something, it would be his work as a spy. But it would be a very begrudging admiration. "Now, Nymphadora, I believe you and Kingsley are working on Harry and Ginny's case?"

Sirius almost scoffed at his use of "I believe" as if he wasn't following the case intently. Tonks stood up and began to speak. "Yes, Kingsley and I are doing all we can to protect Harry and Ginny. The ministry has authorised the use of heat cameras to be used in the memories of certain members of the public in Fort William. We have collected a few memories. Unfortunately, a robbery in the town has been linked to Harry and Ginny, so we have had to take the memory from that woman. I am almost certain we will see an individual under an invisibility cloak. Tomorrow, we're going to start going through the memories and confirming the suspicion of the invisibility cloak. Due to Percy Weasley's confirmation that Harry does indeed have an invisibility cloak, the ministry will assume that any person underneath one is Harry or Ginny.

"Once we have confirmed that, we're going to try and track them through memories and find where they have got to. We're assuming that they are using trains, hidden by the cloak. As soon as we have any information, we'll inform the Order. The problem is, of course, that we'll find out at the same time as the rest of the Order," Tonks finished.

"Are they following any other leads?" Dumbledore queried.

Tonks looked down at the table and Sirius furrowed his brows. "Yes. They have positively identified fingerprints in Umbridge's office to be Harry's. As we know, it was poison that killed her. Harry's fingerprints were found on the teacup, the sugar pot and the milk jug. We also know now that it was basilisk poison that killed her, further linking the murder to Harry."

Sirius' hackles were raised as members of the Order shared looks. Even Molly Weasley seemed to be doubting her belief in Harry. Sirius felt a hand on his arm, steadying him, and he shoved Remus off him. Harry was being framed but no one else could see that.

"I'm looking for any reason that Harry's fingerprints would be on the cutlery. I promise you I won't stop looking," Tonks swore, looking directly at Sirius, who was somewhat gratified.

Dumbledore stood at this point. "I do not wish to believe this, but I find that it cannot be avoided. When Harry was attacked by Voldemort as a child, Voldemort transferred some of himself, some of his powers, into Harry. This is why he speaks parseltongue. It is also why Harry sometimes dreams and sees into parts of Voldemort's life. This is how he saved Arthur last Christmas. For a while, I have suspected that these powers may be influencing Harry in an untoward fashion. I now believe that Harry has been influenced by the presence of Voldemort in his mind and I think he has become more susceptible to the Dark Arts. His relationship with Professor Umbridge was so strained that I think it likely that he may have snapped-"

"You can't be serious," Bill protested before Sirius had the chance. Sirius laughed sarcastically.

"He's fully serious. I can't believe I'm hearing this. I don't even know what to say."

"Sirius," Remus warned.

"No, Remus! I won't have him talk about Harry like this. He is the son of James and Lily Potter! If either of them were sat here right now, you'd better believe that they would not be taking this lying down and neither am I."

With that, Sirius stood up and stormed out, with every plan to drink himself into a stupor.

 **XXX**

"I just don't know, Arthur," Molly said quietly. She did not want Sirius to overhear their conversation. "I'm so scared for Ginny. I know that it's not entirely Harry's fault, but if he's dangerous, then I don't want him anywhere near Ginny." Arthur nodded and Molly was grateful for his support.

"We'll have to step up our efforts, talk to the aurors maybe," Arthur whispered. Molly nodded.

"Tonks and Kingsley cannot find out though," Molly informed her husband, who nodded as though that was a given.

"Mum? Dad?" Bill's voice interrupted them. "Can we talk to you?" Bill and Charlie stood in the doorway to the kitchen.

"Of course," Molly said, rather tightly.

Charlie gave them both a smile. "We just wanted to make sure you didn't agree with what Dumbledore said and that you know that Harry would never harm Ginny."

"Did Sirius send you here to tell us that?" Molly asked them, referring to their newfound friendship with the older man. Bill rolled his eyes.

"No, Mum. He didn't. We came here of our own volition, because we believe in Harry just like we believe in Ginny," Bill said forcefully.

"Exactly, Bill! You believe in Ginny. Ginny did the things they're accusing her of because she was possessed and that's what we're saying about Harry!" Molly fought. Charlie shook his head.

"No, that's not what you're saying about Harry. You're saying that Harry's been affected by You-Kn - No! By Voldemort. You're saying he killed Umbridge because he wanted to not because Voldemort wanted to. It's a completely different argument, Mum, and I can't believe you're accusing Harry of it," Charlie said, Bill nodding by his side.

"Do you not care about your sister one bit?" Molly burst. "I love Harry, of course I do, but I can't stand the thought of your sister in danger. It disgusts me that the two of you can!"

Bill scoffed. "The only danger Ginny is in is the Ministry and Voldemort. Harry is the only thing that she's got on her side right now," he told her strongly. Molly wouldn't hear of it. Dumbledore knew what he was talking about, more so than her sons or Sirius Black.

"Let's not argue, boys," Arthur said wearily.

"We'll argue until you're ready to protect Harry," Charlie said venomously, before storming out of the room, taking his brother with him.

 **XXX**

"I just can't believe it," Bill said as he lay his head on his girlfriend's lap later that evening. "I always thought my parents were pillars of good value, but now I realise that it's only because of Dumbledore that they are. And, as soon as Dumbledore says something, they agree, even if it means sailing the boy they thought of like a son down the river," Bill said angrily.

"Beell," Fleur said comfortingly, "your parents 'ave been in a difficult time. You cannot ah - attendre - what is ze word? Attendre? Expect! You cannot expect zem to eegnore that which Dumbledore is saying, peux-tu? Mon amour, when you 'ave looked up to someone for such a long time, a change of opinion takes time, you have to take the 'abit to do," she said in her butchered English. Bill laughed at her funny expression, a little translation of what they said in French for "get used to". He gently corrected her and she caressed his cheek. "What would I do without you, mon choux?"

"But you believe me don't you, Fleur? You know that Harry would never do anything like attack Ginny?" Bill pleaded with her.

"Bien sur! 'Arry is very dear to me et je crois que 'e would never do anyzing to 'arm anyone!" she stated and Bill kissed her, laughing in relief at her support. "Guillaume, I 'ave thought. I want to join zis Order zat you do. I want to 'elp fight zis man zat is 'urting your sister and 'Arry. We cannot let 'im destroy zis country once again!"

Bill kissed her lightly. "I love you," he whispered. "Je t'aime."

Fleur giggled. "I love you too, mon amour."

"I'll speak to Dumbledore about you joining," he promised.

"Merci," she sighed and began to stroke his hair again.

 **XXX**

 **7th May**

" _Will_ , please, I need some different clothes," Ginny practically begged. He did not want to leave her. His worst nightmare was coming back to the hospital and her being gone. He didn't think he could stand it if he lost her. He knew he couldn't, in fact.

" _Clara_ , don't make me leave you. I need to know you're okay," he pleaded. Ginny shook her head.

"You've not left this hospital in days, Will. You've not slept or eaten anything properly. Please, go home, have a nap and bring me back some clothes in a few hours," she asked of him. "It'll do you good. Maybe have a shower as well," she teased. Harry knew it wasn't only a tease though. He hadn't showered for a good while.

"Okay, okay," he backed down. "I'll be back in a few hours with some clothes and a fresher smelling body," he promised her. She laughed and shooed him out of her hospital room. She was doing remarkably better and was in higher spirits.

Despite this, however, he could see that she was in constant pain and they couldn't talk for very long without her being worn out. The whole week she'd been in and out of sleep and Harry had been going insane. The nurses and doctors had got used to his presence, but they had kicked him out every so often. He'd returned immediately, covered by the invisibility cloak, of course.

He had known that Ginny would kick him out eventually but he'd been trying to avoid it. Being away from her was petrifying. There was no chance he was having a nap when he got back to the house. He needed to be with her again. He'd have a shower, grab her some clothes and then get straight back on the bus, he resolved as he boarded the bus back to their house.

Petrified wasn't even the word. There wasn't a word. No words described the feeling he felt when he thought about losing Ginny. He didn't think he'd ever felt anything like it and he never wanted to feel it again. It made him feel vulnerable.

He was so far from coping at the moment. Every sound at the hospital made him jump. In the few moments he'd been able to sleep, he'd had awful nightmares. He needed Ginny back. Without her, there was no way he could do this. He may as well hand himself into the Ministry now.

With that awful thought, Harry disembarked the bus and began to walk quickly home. It was only two minutes from the bus stop to their house, but, with tears welling in his eyes, it felt like miles.

Walking into the house, he locked the door behind him. And, with that, he collapsed onto the floor and sobbed.


	6. Chapter 6

**11th May**

The taxi fare from the hospital was astronomic. The bus would have cost them at least half the price, but, with Ginny in a wheelchair, they had no choice. They'd bundled into the first taxi they could find, Harry carrying Ginny from her wheelchair to the back seat and then folding the wheelchair up into the boot. To say Ginny hated this sort of treatment would be an understatement.

Every time he did something for her, he watched her nostrils flare and her face thunder with anger. He didn't have a choice, though. She had several broken ribs and a broken ankle, and she was recovering from a punctured lung. The doctors had told him under no uncertain terms that he was to look after her for the foreseeable.

Ginny had wanted crutches rather than a wheelchair. She'd wanted some semblance of self control. Harry knew he'd be the exact same in her position, but there was no way that crutches could work. Her ribs were too sensitive at the moment, nowhere near healed.

Harry didn't care. She could complain all she liked, but he wasn't going to relent. He was going to make sure she was completely and utterly okay before she did anything on her own. The sight of her splattered on a road was too fresh in his mind.

Traffic blighted them on their way home, so the taxi fare rose even more so. He paid nevertheless, albeit feeling rather cheated out of his money. Collecting Ginny's wheelchair out of the back, he picked her up almost bridal style and placed her back into it, checking with her that she was okay as he did. After being shot a death glare, Harry shut up.

Of course, nothing could be easy. There was a step in front of the house and the door was too thin to accommodate Ginny's wheelchair anyway. Mumbling about ableism, Harry once again picked Ginny up, holding her tight to him.

Right now, he was rather glad of their oddly designed house, which gave them bedrooms on the ground floor rather than the first. Ginny wasn't heavy, but Harry wasn't particularly strong. He put her down on her bed, the only one which had been built. "Do you want to be under the covers?" he asked her, conscious of her comfort. She nodded quickly and he could tell she was in pain. "I'll get you some painkillers after I've tucked you in, okay?" Again, he received just a nod. Lifting the covers on the other side of the bed, Harry moved Ginny over and arranged her pillows into a comfortable position, lying down. She looked exhausted and Harry was all too willing to allow her to go to sleep.

Once he was sure that she was comfortable, Harry fetched the painkillers the doctor had given him. He filled one of their water bottles from Fort William with water and helped her to sip it, while she took the tablets. "Give me a shout if you need to move or anything, Gin? I'm just gonna be in my room, building my bed." She nodded again and closed her eyes. Impulsively, Harry placed a kiss on her forehead and Ginny smiled for the first time properly since her accident.

 **XXX**

"Over two weeks," Sirius muttered as he poured himself another drink of firewhiskey. "Two weeks since they went missing. No one has any idea where they are and I've failed them yet again."

"Sirius," Remus sighed. "None of this is your fault."

"Just because it's not directly my fault doesn't mean I don't feel guilty, Remus," Sirius informed his best friend. Remus' sighs were becoming difficult to bear. "If James and Lily were here, this would never have happened."

"If James and Lily were here, lots of things would be different, Padfoot," Remus said quietly. "I've learnt over the years to stop thinking on it."

"I just don't want to let them down again, Moony," Sirius said, embarrassingly close to tears.

Remus wrapped an arm around his best friend's shoulders. "We're gonna find them," he promised. "I swear, Sirius, no harm will come to them."

XXX

12th May

There was a knock at the door. Concerned, Harry shot a look at Ginny, who was fast asleep. Running a hand through his hair, he considered what to do. Surely, it wouldn't be the aurors. They wouldn't knock. It could be the police, but why would the police be here? Who else could it be?

He shook himself. It was probably just the postman. But why would they be getting post? Maybe it was the milkman. Only they didn't have one. Harry took a deep breath and figured that the only way he was going to find out was to open the door.

He closed the door to Ginny's bedroom on the way to open the door. He didn't want anyone to know she was there, not while she couldn't protect herself. _You're not very good at that either_ , a voice in Harry's head reminded him.

Ignoring that, Harry looked through the window in the door and saw a few people of varying heights. He rather thought one of them might be a child. Either way, it didn't seem to be the police. Gathering his courage, he opened the door.

"Hello!" a woman said loudly. She was on the larger side with short blonde hair, wearing a long skirt and smart blouse. If he had to guess, Harry would put her at about forty years old. Next to her was a tall man with tidy brown hair and glasses. He was smartly dressed in a tie, shirt and pants. Harry admired the shine on his shoes. In front of them stood a teenager and a child, both female, both with blonde hair, although the teenager's looked rather fake and her roots were showing.

"Hi," Harry replied, slightly confused at what was going on.

"We just wanted to introduce ourselves," the woman said kindly. "We live next door," she told him, pointing to the right. "I'm Maggie." She offered him her hand and he shook it. "This is my husband, Clive, and our two daughters, Rebecca and Bernadette."

"Becky," the teenager corrected. Harry thought he'd put Becky at thirteen, just a year younger than Ginny.

"Bonnie," the child corrected at the same time as her sister. Bonnie must have been eight or nine.

Clive offered Harry his hand and Harry took it, admiring the man's firm handshake.

"I'm Will," Harry offered. "My girlfriend, Clara, is just next door. She's been in a car accident so she's bed-bound." Maggie and Clive shared a sympathetic look.

"Oh, you poor dears! Well, if you need anything, anything at all, just come and knock on," Maggie told him and Harry believed that she would do anything for them. She reminded him a bit of Molly Weasley. A small pang went through Harry's chest. He gave them a smile, slightly pained. "We'll hopefully see you soon - and your girlfriend! I hope she's better soon!"

"Thank you," Harry replied quietly. The family departed then and Harry closed the door with a relieved sigh. Surely they just thought that he and Ginny were regular people and they'd accepted the fake names without surprise. Harry returned to Ginny's room and the chest of drawers he was constructing. Nearly everything from her room had been constructed by this point. He'd build two bedside tables, a wardrobe, a dressing table and her chest of drawers. In order to make sure she was okay all the time, he'd moved his chest of drawers into her room so that he could construct them there.

"Harry," he heard Ginny moan softly from the bed. He was at her side within seconds as she stirred from her slumber. "Did I hear you talking?"

"Some neighbours came to introduce themselves," he told her quietly.

"Oh. Were they nice?" she said, her speech slurred slightly from sleep.

"Very," he told her. "Do you want some water or something to eat? You've got another hour before you can take any more meds," he reminded her. She nodded.

"Some water would be nice and maybe a sandwich or something?"

He nodded and squeezed her hand, standing up. "I'll be back in a sec, Gin," he promised, leaving her room to go to the kitchen.

When they'd returned from the hospital, a lot of the food they'd bought in the days prior to Ginny's accident had gone off, so Harry had had to bin it all. Thankfully, he'd frozen quite a bit, including some bread and some meat, so he'd been able to feed them both without having to leave the house. It wouldn't go on for much longer though; he'd have to go to the shop soon.

He made Ginny a cheese and ham sandwich and filled a glass with water. Adding a straw to the glass, he made his way back downstairs to the patient. He found Ginny trying to move and nearly dropped the food and water in his shock. "Ginny!" he admonished. "You can't move yet. You have to let your ribs heal."

Ginny sighed in frustration and Harry did feel for her. He wouldn't be able to deal with it himself. "Here, I'll help you sit up if you'd like?" She nodded, but looked away from him angrily. Wondering whether she was angry at him or herself, he put the glass and plate down on her bedside table and helped her to move. "That better?" he asked softly and she nodded again, looking to the food beside her.

Harry allowed her to eat and drink by herself. There was no damage to her arms, miraculously. Watching her, Harry knew that eating was paining her, but the doctors had said that this should pass as her ribs healed.

"I'm gonna carry on building this chest of drawers, Gin. Tell me if you want me to move you," he instructed her and she nodded with a small smile.

 **XXX**

Sirius entered the kitchen at one o'clock that afternoon for the first time that day. Bill and Charlie looked at him disapprovingly. "What are you two doing here?" Sirius rasped.

"Don't work Thursdays," they both said immediately and Sirius rolled his eyes.

"You two are as bad as the twins."

"Sirius, I think we should talk about your drinking," Bill started.

"Don't start, Bill. You sound like Remus."

Bill banged his hand on the table and Sirius looked up in surprise. "Sirius, you've got blackout drunk every single day since Harry and Ginny went missing. How is that helping them? What use are you going to be if you're drunk all the time? And when we do find them, what is Harry going to think?"

Sirius' chin wobbled. "But we've not found them have we? And I can't even leave this bastard house!"

"I know, Sirius, but we can make a plan," Charlie encouraged. "I'm fed up of this passive fighting of Voldemort. We're gonna start taking the fight to him, starting with getting Pettigrew," he spat. Sirius furrowed his brow at Charlie. "And, once we've got Pettigrew, we're not going to stop until we've got Harry and Ginny back and every single one of Voldemort's arse lickers is either dead or permanently imprisoned."

Sirius nodded with a sigh. "I know you're right. I'm not an alcoholic," he told them honestly. "I don't feel like I have to drink. I feel like I've got nothing else to do. I feel useless. Everyone else is doing something and I'm just sat around."

"We're gonna do something about that, Sirius," Bill swore.

"Okay then. Let's get rid of all of the alcohol and then start," Sirius stated. Bill and Charlie grinned at him and all too happily helped him rid the house of every trace of alcohol.

 **XXX**

 **13th May**

"Okay, so you've got my key and I've given you permission to use it so it'll work. Buy some sort of house or flat or whatever. I don't care where it is or what it looks like. Just make sure there's enough room for both kids and me and I dunno, you two if you want. At least four bedrooms," Sirius repeated these instructions for the millionth time that day.

"Sirius, we know," Charlie said with a sigh. "We're gonna sort it and, when we get back, I want you to have banished every piece of furniture from this house that you don't like. Let's sort this place out."

Sirius nodded. "Aye aye, captain. Now, off with the pair of you."

Bill and Charlie apparated out of Grimmauld Place with two loud cracks. Sirius took out the wand Bill had bought from Ollivander's for him the other day. He'd been without a wand for far too long. It was quite a good match if he was honest. This would be fun.

Starting with the kitchen, Sirius banished every piece of crockery with the Black insignia on it. Every glass with snakes on it was gone. He even banished the table that wouldn't let muggleborns sit at it. Fed up of the dirty, dark windows, he smashed them all with his wand and then fixed them, gratified when they were fixed perfectly clean. Cleaning spells on their own hadn't worked when Molly had tried.

Satisfied that the kitchen looked sufficiently different from his time there as a child, Sirius moved into the next room, banishing the furniture and decor that he hated. He used wallpaper-stripping spells to peel the dark paper from the walls. The Black family tree wouldn't budge, so Sirius had fun blasting all the faces of the people he hated, Bellatrix being his first victim.

From there, he moved from room to room, not leaving until it looked sufficiently different. He pulled up carpets to find clean dark wood flooring underneath. Pictures that weren't attached to the walls were banished and lampshades that made the room darker rather than lighter fell victim to a reducto curse. Smashing and then rebuilding the windows worked perfectly, lightening up the house within minutes. The heads of the house elves were banished without a second thought.

Bill and Charlie clearly hadn't expected Sirius to be so ruthless, because, within half an hour, Sirius had finished the ground floor, his mother's portrait and the family tree the only awful things that survived his purge. Although it now looked somewhat empty, the house was happier already.

Sirius went into the basement then. Nobody had really been down there since they'd moved in. They'd had no need too. However, Sirius knew that there would be some handy things down there. It had been his father's office and potion lab. His father had been incredible at potions and they'd had all sorts of ingredients.

Most of the office was destroyed immediately. Sirius had too many bad memories there. It was where his father had undertaken most of Sirius' punishments. The few books he found were banished to the library rather than to wherever banished things went. He'd sort the library when Remus was here. Only Remus would know the value of the books there. The office was completely empty rather quickly.

The potions lab was more interesting. Rather than the banishing charm, Sirius used the cleaning charm in here. Dust was banished immediately and then Sirius started to examine what was in there. In his day, Sirius hadn't been bad at potions himself. Better than James had been, certainly, although not as good as Lily.

There were a few cauldrons that Sirius had got rid of, being that they were designed with the Black motto on the side. He kept most of them though. As before, the potions books were sent to the library. He stripped the walls, including some portraits that had complained loudly. It wasn't a bad lab, all in all. The equipment was a bit outdated but not in bad shape.

In a room off the side of the lab, Sirius found ingredients. A preservation spell had been cast on the whole room, meaning that all of the ingredients were still ready to be used. He was in awe of some of the ingredients and wondered where on earth his father had got them. Knockturn Alley, probably, for most of them, but there were a few he'd never even of.

The rest of the basement was storage, some of it from when Sirius' family had lived there and some of it was the bags of things the Order didn't know what to do with. Sirius had told them to banish the lot, but clearly Molly had just put it down here.

With a roll of his eyes, Sirius banished the bags and moved onto the rest of the stuff. Furniture, clothes, jewelry, shoes, books. Everything was in that room and Sirius had great fun getting rid of it. The usual was done for the books and Sirius actually sent the jewelry to the kitchen, thinking that he could sell the lot and get some money out of it. Clothes and shoes were got rid of as well as the furniture. The best thing he'd found, however, was a bag of his own clothes from when he was sixteen. He sent it up to the kitchen with the jewelry and anything else he thought might have been valuable.

The finished effect left a practically empty basement, except for a few relatively nice pieces of furniture and a necklace on the floor. Curious as to why he'd missed it, Sirius picked it up and recognised it immediately. They'd found it in one of the cupboards in the house and no one had been able to open the locket. Evidently, it had resisted banishing as well. Furrowing his eyebrows, Sirius placed the locket in his pocket, sure that Bill would have an idea what it was.

"Sirius!" he heard from above, a sure sign that Bill and Charlie had returned. Sirius practically sprinted up the stairs, desperate for news, a bit of hope.

Grinning like idiots, the pair had laid out some paper on the kitchen table. "You got one then?"

"Did we ever," Charlie said enthusiastically. "It's in a place called Middleton-On-Sea, down south and the house has a sea view. It's remote and it has six bedrooms. It even comes with enough land that I bet, once the wards are up, we could put a quidditch pitch in!"

"Excellent," Sirius said with a grin, looking over the pictures.

"There's a bit of work needs doing," Bill said diplomatically, "but that'll give you something to do until we find Pettigrew."

"Well, as you can see, I'm quite good at doing work," Sirius said smugly, gesturing around him. Bill and Charlie nodded vigorously, clearly having seen the amount of work Sirius had done in the past few hours on the ground floor. "I found my father's old potions lab downstairs and the ingredients cupboard had a preservation spell on it. There's things I've never even heard of in there," Sirius told them in wonder. Both men looked curious.

"It shouldn't take too long to apply some paint charms around here though, and then the house will be looking spick and span," Charlie announced to Sirius' delight.

"Excellent. Let's sort out this place and then we can sort out Harry's - and Ginny's - house," Sirius said to the nods of both younger men.

 **XXX**

"Hello?" Fred called into the room where he had heard the cries. To him, there was nothing worse than somebody crying. He and his brother's mission was to make people laugh. Obviously, tears were the very antithesis of that. "Hello?" he said, turning fully into the classroom. In the corner of the room, he saw the last person he'd expected: "Hermione?"

She looked up, wiping her eyes. "Oh, Fred," she said and he didn't know if she sounded disappointed. He hoped she wasn't disappointed by his presence. Maybe she would have preferred Ron. For some reason, the thought of her preferring Ron to him made him feel funny. Shaking that off, he approached her.

"What's up, Hermione?" he asked softly, sitting down on the table next to her.

She shook her head. "Just a stupid fight with Ron. Nothing worth getting into."

"If it's made you this upset, of course it is," he encouraged her.

"Thank you, Fred, but really-"

"Hermione, my brother's an idiot. Well, most of them are really, but, other than Percy, Ron is probably top of the list," he told her and she smiled slightly. "Tell me what happened and, if necessary, I'll knock some sense into him," he offered.

"He- I was just talking to some of the girls in my dorm room, you know? I've been spending more time with them since Harry left, because Ron hasn't really been around that much. Anyway, Ron saw us and later on he shouted at me, saying that it was like I didn't care about him as much as I cared about Harry. And that's not true! I love them both equally. They're my best friends but Ron didn't seem to want to know, you know? He's spending so much time with Neville and Dean and Seamus and he didn't seem to want me anymore. I had to make new friends, right?"

"Of course," Fred soothed.

"We had this whole fight and then he ran off, leaving me crying in the corridor and I came in here," she said with a frown on her face and tears still running down her face. "I don't know, Fred. I love them both, but it feels like it was Harry that kept us together," she confessed in a whisper and began to sob fully again. Fred wrapped her up in his arms.

Holding her was the only thing he could do, Fred realised. The only way he knew how to deal with situations was humour. He wished he knew anything else. If he was smart like her, he'd be able to tell her how to deal with it. If he was Harry, he could say something inspiring. Fred rather thought even Ron would know how to look after her better than he was right now.

And he was desperate to make her feel better. Maybe it was because it was his brother who had upset her. Maybe it was because she was almost kind of like a sister. The thought made Fred uncomfortable. Harry was like a brother, so Hermione should be like a sister, right?

Except she wasn't. They hadn't spent as much time together. That was an appropriate explanation, Fred figured.

"Fred?" she whispered and Fred loosened his hold on her, hoping to hell he hadn't made her feel uncomfortable. "Will you tell me something funny?" she requested and Fred was shell-shocked. He stared at her, his face full of wonder. That was the last thing he had expected.

So, with a wide smile, Fred began to tell the story of Fred and George's first prank at Hogwarts.

 **XXX**


	7. Chapter 7

**14th May**

"Okay, I'd like to bring this session to a start," Dumbledore said from the top of the table. The Order was in session. "I'd firstly like to welcome Miss Fleur Delacour to her first meeting," he said and there was a small round of applause. Bill squeezed Fleur's hand and kissed the back of it. "As you may be able to see, Miss Delacour is Bill Weasley's partner. She was a Triwizard champion last year and now works as a secretary at Gringotts, using her language skills to work in translation." Fleur beamed and Bill grinned at her.

The meeting itself wasn't the most interesting. Snape gave his usual report on Voldemort. Mundungus Fletcher informed them about goings on in Knockturn Alley. Yet again, Dumbledore discussed Harry and Ginny. Tonks informed them that they had tracked Harry and Ginny to the station in Fort William and they had a theory that they had gone to Edinburgh.

"I propose that whenever we can, we discretely go to Edinburgh and look around for signs of Harry and Ginny. I would suspect that they are close to magical Edinburgh, but I have no basis for that. We need to find them as soon as possible, before Harry does something else that he regrets," Dumbledore implored.

"Sorry, Professor," Fleur began and Bill gave her a confused look. "Do you truly believe zat 'Arry would ever bring 'arm to Geeny? 'Arry is the most kind, most lovely boy I 'ave ever 'ad ze pleasure to meet and I am - ah - I cannot zink of ze word - I am astounded zat you would ever suspect 'im of doing so," Fleur said passionately. Bill stared at her with all the wonder in the world. This was the woman he was going to spend the rest of his life with.

"Hear, hear," Sirius said, raising his glass with a wink at Fleur. Bill gave him a look. "Calm down, Bill, I'm not flirting. I am merely grateful that someone else can see what a wonderful young man my godson is." Bill rolled his eyes at Sirius but agreed with his statement.

Dumbledore sighed. "This is not about Harry. This is about Voldemort. Harry is not strong enough to resist him and it is naive of us to assume that just because Harry is a good person, he would not fall victim to Voldemort's ways. Miss Weasley herself-"

"Was eleven years old when she was possessed by Voldemort," Charlie growled. "She didn't know what she had been given. She was tricked and, even so, managed to fight him for nearly a year-"

"That was a sixteen year old Voldemort-"

"Do you think Harry wouldn't know what was happening straight away? He's been dealing with Voldemort in his head for years," Bill continued.

"Charlie! Bill! I think Professor Dumbledore knows better than either of you," Bill's mother interrupted. Bill rolled his eyes and collapsed back onto his chair, unwilling to argue even more with his mother. It was draining. All he needed to know was that there were people on their side and that they could do something about all this. He met eyes with his brother.

Dumbledore cleared his throat. "Now, in more pressing news, I have decided that it is time that we move Order headquarters. Those of you who fought in the first war will remember that we moved frequently for safety's sake. I feel that it is time to do this now, before the Hogwarts term is over." Bill furrowed his brows. They were under a fidelius charm here, done by Dumbledore himself. How much safer could they be?

"And are you going to follow the same protocol?" Sirius questioned the older man. Bill shot Sirius a look, confused by his question.

"If you mean making everyone forget this house, yes, Sirius, I am. You know that there is a good reason for that," Dumbledore explained and Bill gasped.

"Yes, Bill, no one will know where this house is until I tell them again. No one will know, including Harry and Ginny," Sirius said bitterly.

"Sirius, it's for our safety as much as theirs," Dumbledore said softly. Sirius rolled his eyes and Bill felt the same. From the looks on their faces, Charlie, Bill and Tonks agreed with Sirius too. "Right, I will be giving details to people as soon as I have found a new location. Thank you all," he said before sweeping out of the room.

"Bill, Charlie, can I talk to you for a sec?" Sirius said. Bill and Charlie stood up immediately. Bill kissed Fleur on the cheek and promised to be back in a second.

They went into the war room, unlocking it as they did. Afraid of what Dumbledore would think of their more upfront tactics, the door was constantly locked with alarm spells to alert Sirius, Bill and Charlie when they were breached. Not a bad system if Bill had to say so.

"A few things," Sirius started, leaning back against the desk that had survived Sirius' purge yesterday. "Firstly, Bill, if you want to get Fleur in on this, I think both Charlie and I would be amenable?" Charlie nodded his assent and Bill gave his thanks to both men. "Secondly, with the moving of the Order, I was thinking that I might just move into the house we bought and I was wondering if either of you fancy moving in with me?"

Bill considered it. He was fed up of living with his mother. In Egypt, he'd got used to the freedom of living alone. Living with two men, he thought, would be similar. However, he had to consider his newest consideration: he was going to propose to Fleur.

"I'm going to propose," Bill burst. Sirius and Charlie looked at him in shock, before breaking out into grins.

"Brilliant," Charlie said enthusiastically. "You know we love Fleur."

"I know. So, if it's alright with you, Sirius, I'll move in until we get married."

Sirius nodded with a grin. "Charlie?"

"Awesome," was Charlie's agreement. All three men shared a grin.

 **XXX**

 **15th May**

"I can't believe you're doing this," Molly said. She'd not been happy since Bill and Charlie had told her that they were moving in with Sirius. Sirius, however, had been very happy. He was very excited about moving in with Bill and Charlie and making plans to find Harry and bring him home.

"Mum, I'm 26," Bill protested, "and Charlie is 25. We've moved out before," he tried to placate her. Molly scoffed.

"That was different! You-Know-Who wasn't at large then! You were safe. Now, you're running off to live with-"

"With who, Molly?" Sirius challenged. His relationship with Molly, already strained, wasn't faring well, especially as she believed Dumbledore's theory that Harry was dangerous.

"With a convicted criminal," Molly stated and Sirius growled.

"Mum!" Charlie and Bill both said at once and Sirius was grateful for their support, but insulted that Molly still thought that of him.

"I'm sorry, Sirius. That was unkind," Molly said, chastised. Sirius nodded once and left the room, returning to the war room and staring at the pictures of Harry and Ginny they'd pinned to the wall.

"Where are you kiddo?" he muttered, touching Harry's picture lightly.

 **XXX**

 **17th May**

Harry stirred from his slumber slowly. Finally having slept in his own bed, rather than napping every so often on Ginny's, he thought this might have been the most awake he'd felt in quite a while, since before her accident, which was 18 days ago now.

And how those 18 days had passed. Of course they'd spent a lot of time at the hospital. Even when they'd actually been allowed to come home, they'd had to go back the other day for a check up. Being home though was so much less stressful. Yes, it was a bit scary because the doctors knew exactly how to help Ginny and Harry, being literally fifteen years old, had absolutely no clue. However, it meant that they weren't lying anymore. He could call her Ginny without any repercussions. It made his life a whole lot easier because he wasn't carefully planning every word he said.

Since they'd come home, Harry had constructed every piece of furniture that IKEA had delivered to them after their trip to the shop. The trip itself had been fun and Harry thought wistfully back to those days when Ginny had been laughing and discovering new things. She'd adored IKEA and he'd promised that he'd take her back. It was his first trip too and he completely understood her fascination with the place.

They'd bought everything to furnish the house and paid for it on their muggle debit card. Beds, storage units, things for the kitchen, a couch set, soft furnishings, everything. Ginny had chosen everything white for her room, with turquoise bed sheets, curtains and cushions. Harry had gone for a dark wood, similar to the colour of the beds at Hogwarts. He'd then chosen red for his bed spread and soft furnishings. Harry had finished off both his and Ginny's rooms first, so that they both had somewhere that they could go.

The room upstairs, which comprised the kitchen, living room and dining room, had taken up the most discussion when they were in IKEA. Of course, for their own rooms, they could have whatever they'd liked, but in the communal area, they wanted to agree on furniture. The sofa they'd agreed on was a three-seater in dark brown and they'd chosen two armchairs in a deep red colour. The coffee table was also a dark brown, almost mahogany, to match the fireplace which had already been installed when they'd arrived.

The dining table matched, as well as the chairs, and they'd bought some bar stools to go along the breakfast bar in the kitchen. They'd bought red and white crockery and all of the accessories in the kitchen were red too. All in all, it was a house made for a Gryffindor.

All of this building things had given him something to do while Ginny was in and out of sleep and unable to do anything. This was the one thing Harry could do for her - give her somewhere in which she could feel safe and happy.

Harry was reluctant to open his eyes, so he squinted around the room, searching for a sign of what time it was. It was light outside, not that that helped him at all, being the middle of May. It was light outside at five am. Sighing, Harry gave himself up to it and pulled himself from his bed. He should probably check on Ginny anyway.

Wiping the sleep from his eyes, Harry stumbled along to Ginny's bedroom and knocked on her door, before opening it. "Gin?" he called, only to find her bed was empty. "Ginny!" he shouted more loudly. She must've gone upstairs.

All thoughts of tiredness wiped from his mind, Harry raced upstairs and into the main room. He found her there, sat on the sofa with a glass of water. "Ginny, what the fuck?" he shouted.

"Harry, please," she begged, "I told you I'm feeling much better and I was thirsty. There was no point waking you up, was there?"

"There was every point, Ginny! You've got several broken ribs and a broken ankle. You could've caused yourself some serious damage," he chastised her, his heart beat slowing down now that he saw she was safe. She gave him a pitying look and he sighed, going to sit down next to her on their sofa.

"Harry," she started carefully after a few moments of silence, "I really do feel better. Wait, don't interrupt me. I can move around on my leg. I don't know why it's happened, but I think my magic might be healing me faster. It's still sore. I mean, it aches like a bitch right now, I won't lie to you, but it doesn't feel as bad as it did anymore."

Harry sighed. It had been something that he'd considered. As a child, his injuries would heal a heck of a lot faster than anybody else's in his class would and, when he'd joined the wizarding world, he'd realised why.

"It's definitely possible," he admitted and Ginny grinned. "Right, I'll go and get your duvet and pillow and you can sit up here today, while you're already up here," he said with a roll of his eyes.

"Thank you," she said and Harry could tell that she was grateful. He supposed being stuck in bed 24/7 must be draining in itself.

By the time Harry returned with Ginny's turquoise bedding, she was fast asleep, clearly having drained herself too much getting up the stairs. Curiously, Harry wondered how long it had taken her. Chuckling, he admired her stubbornness. Trying not to wake her, he covered her with the duvet and tucked the pillow under her head, before placing a kiss on her forehead.

 **XXX**

Sirius was packed. Without another thought or wistful goodbye to the place he'd called home for too many years, he apparated away to the cottage Bill and Charlie had purchased at Gringotts. Over the past few days, both men had erected the wards necessary to keep the house safe, including a Fidelius charm with Sirius as the secret keeper, a responsibility he was only too happy to have. He wasn't going to give it away to anyone else this time either.

Arriving just outside the house, Sirius admired the fact that the house was in the middle of nowhere so they'd been able to take the wards across the whole property. This meant that Sirius would not be cooped up constantly. He'd be able to go outside and, hopefully, if Bill succeeded in his purchase, to fly.

"Sirius!" Bill called from the door and Sirius grinned. His newfound friendship with the Weasleys was a great comfort to him. As much as he loved Remus, he was away too often and, when he wasn't out on missions, he was too close to Dumbledore.

"Bill, are you all set up?" he asked and Bill nodded happily. "Show me to my room, then!"

The house was old-fashioned but Sirius was ready to sort that out. They were going to gut the basement and turn it into a duelling area, for practise. The laundry room, too, would be put to better use as a potions lab. The rest of the house would stay relatively the same, just with newer furniture and decor. Sirius was very excited to get started.

He chose his room from the four leftover, Bill and Charlie having claimed the other two. Sirius claimed the room with the view of the clearing where they would be setting up a quidditch pitch. This action was in hope for the future of seeing Harry, and Ginny, playing out there.

"Hey, Sirius," Charlie said, popping his head into his room. Sirius gave his roommate a grin. "I nicked some polyjuice from Madeye. You wanna go to Diagon Alley and get some food in?" he offered and Sirius' heart leapt. Going out? Of course he did. He beamed at Charlie and put the rest of his stuff down.

Charlie handed him the potion. "You're gonna be Bill. He's gone to see the wife," Charlie joked and Sirius grinned.

Sirius grimaced at the sight of the potion, however. The few experiences he'd had with polyjuice had not been pleasant. "Well, bottoms up," he said with a fake smile.

"Better you than me, mate," Charlie said and Sirius pulled a face at him, before downing the potion in one. It wasn't an easy job keeping it down and Sirius gagged multiple times. All in all, actually, it wasn't a pleasant experience. It wasn't painful, exactly, as he morphed into Bill, but it was not enjoyable. "That's bloody weird," Charlie said and Sirius tended to agree as he looked at himself in the mirror.

"Right then, shall we be off?" Sirius said, itching to get out of the house and into the real world for the first time in however long. Charlie grinned.

"Meet you in the alleyway next to the Leaky?" he said, before disapparating with a loud crack. Sirius couldn't keep the smile off his face as he too disapparated to the usual apparition spot for Diagon Alley.

The alleyway was dark and dank and yet it seemed to be the loveliest place Sirius had been in years. Freedom. Not truly, not yet, but it was a taste. "We probably should have written a list," Charlie considered as they exited the alleyway.

"Nah, let's buy whatever. My treat," Sirius said with a wink. He looked up at the Leaky in awe. Was he really stood in front of the Leaky? He'd never thought this would happen again. The last time he was here was with James and Remus, and Peter. Sirius almost growled.

"You alright, mate?" Charlie asked and Sirius forced a smile to his face, shrugging it off.

"You say they opened a supermarket?" Sirius questioned and Charlie nodded, directing him through the Leaky to the supermarket which probably opened while Charlie was still at Hogwarts, and Sirius was still in Azkaban.

The supermarket wasn't anywhere near the size of the old supermarket Lily and James shopped at, but it was big enough for their needs. Like a child, Sirius picked up loads and loads of sweets and dumped them into the trolley. Charlie only chuckled at the older man. They then continued to buy healthier foods for their meals. Only when they had a full trolley did they approach the till.

"Ah, go and grab some skimmed milk, would you?" Charlie said with a sigh. "You don't drink anything but," he muttered and Sirius rolled his eyes, walking away from the queue to go and fetch the milk that Bill preferred.

Meandering back to Charlie, Sirius tried to hide his grin. If any of these people in the supermarket knew who he was, there'd be mayhem, chaos. It was quite an odd thought, the power of magic. He wondered if any actual dangerous people were hiding in plain sight.

By the time he got back to the till, Charlie had begun to load the food onto the till. "Brill, cheers," Charlie said when Sirius put the skimmed milk onto the till.

"Are you guys having a party or something?" the till girl teased them as she scanned the food. Charlie was bagging it up into a bag with an undetectable extension charm placed on it. Sirius looked up as Charlie answered. He recognised that voice.

The girl on the till had blonde hair, though. Not the brown that he remembered. Her eyes, though, shone as brightly as they ever had, as blue as Lily's had been green.

But it couldn't be her. She'd died, surely? She hadn't been seen in years. Her disappearance the day after Harry's first birthday party had led the Marauders to believe that she had been killed. They had looked, of course they had. She was Lily's best friend, but there was no sign of her. Dumbledore had asked his spies for signs and they'd not had any clue.

Eventually, they had given up. Maybe they shouldn't have.

"Zoe," Sirius breathed and she looked up, giving him an odd look.

"How do you know my name?" she hissed at him and Sirius remembered that he was Bill in this situation. Charlie gave Sirius a confused look and Sirius looked around himself, trying to find some reason for his knowing her name.

He sighed. "I can't explain that." She glared at him. "I mean, I can't explain it here. Meet me somewhere?" he pleaded and she scoffed.

"Why the hell would I meet someone I don't know?" Zoe asked him hysterically. Charlie was staring at Sirius in complete and utter befuddlement.

Sirius sighed and thought for a second. How could he prove to her that he was him without saying his name? "You lost your virginity on 6th March 1976," he whispered to her and she drew back, eyes wide. "You didn't even tell your best friend that, did you, Zoe?" Her jaw clenched.

"Meet me in the Leaky at six?" she offered and Sirius shook his head.

"No can do, unfortunately. I'll see you at the Fox and Hound at six," he told her and then began to help Charlie with their food.

"What the fuck was that about?" Charlie asked quietly after they'd left the store. Sirius sighed and told him that he'd explain when they got back to the house.

 **XXX**

Ginny moaned softly as she woke up. She winced as she tried to move. Her foot was throbbing, clearly unhappy with the movements she had made earlier. Ginny blinked her eyes open and lifted an arm slowly to wipe away the sleep.

"Morning, sleeping beauty," Harry teased from the kitchen. Ginny rolled her eyes and then sniffed dramatically.

"Can I smell food?" she asked him hopefully and Harry chuckled.

"Yes. Two mins away," he informed her and she grinned happily. She wondered how long she'd been asleep for and wished that they had a clock so that she could find out. It was indeed about two minutes later, though, that Harry brought her food over to her. It was pasta with chicken covered in some sort of spice. Harry had bought a lot of different herbs and spices when they were at the supermarket, confessing to her that he actually didn't mind cooking.

Harry helped Ginny sit up and she gave him a grateful smile as she began to tuck into the food. "How are you feeling?" he asked her between mouthfuls of his own food.

She gave him what she hoped was a decent smile and said, "sore." Harry jumped up immediately and grabbed her pain medication from the kitchen side. Grateful, Ginny swallowed them almost straight away. While she thought her ankle may be on its way, her ribs were nowhere near and all the exercise she'd done that day was catching up with her.

"Ginny," Harry started when they'd both finished with their meals, "I want to apologise. I was a dick the day of your accident. If I'd not left, then you wouldn't have come after me. If I'd actually spoken to you, or come to you, when I saw you, you wouldn't have run across the road and you wouldn't have been part of the accident," he told her morosely.

Ginny sighed and offered Harry her hand, which he took. She squeezed it. "Harry, this was never going to be easy. Yeah, you were a dick the other day and you really upset me, but this whole situation is difficult and I do not blame you a single bit. I was stupid and I ran in front of the car."

"But Ginny-"

"No, Harry. Let's just forget about it. All I want now is that you can teach me how to survive in the muggle world. I need to be able to fit in and be able to work it on my own," she said passionately. She'd been thinking about this since she'd woken up. Harry nodded.

"I'm so sorry, Ginny," he said again.

"I will slap you if you apologise one more time, Potter," Ginny warned and he had the decency to look sheepish.

 **XXX**

"So, this woman, you thought she was dead?" Bill asked Sirius and he nodded with a sigh. "When did she disappear?"

"1st August 1981, the day after Harry's birthday party. She'd turned up to that late as it was and she didn't look very well. I never really thought about it because we were so wrapped up in Harry and his party," Sirius said, looking to the ground.

"And she was your…?" Charlie questioned with raised brows. Sirius rolled his eyes.

"She was my friend. She was Lily's best mate." Charlie and Bill continued to stare at Sirius until he gave in. "My friend who I lost my virginity to on 6th March 1976."

"And after that?"

Sirius shrugged. "We never really spoke about it. A week later, she was going out with this guy, Derrick something or other and our relationship hadn't really changed. I got over it quickly too, before you think I was broken-hearted. We were sixteen and in the middle of a war."

Charlie and Bill accepted that answer. "So, do you think she knew who you were?"

Sirius shook his head. "I've no idea, to be honest. I'd assume so. I never even told James that Zoe was my first and she never told Lily, so I think I was the only one who knew."

"Are you scared?" Charlie asked him and Sirius smiled.

"Of Zoe? Nah, she's a big softie is Zoe," he told them with a laugh.

 **XXX**

"OW!" Sirius shouted as Zoe slapped him. "What the fuck was that for?" he asked her angrily. She huffed and took her seat, having just arrived at the room that Sirius had rented.

"Being a twat after James and Lily died. Why in the name of hell would you go after Peter like that?" she asked him. Sirius harrumphed.

"Zoe, you know what happened! You know that we swapped secret keepers. You were the only other person who knew. Peter betrayed them!" he told her, unable to believe she was blaming him for his actions.

"Yes, you stupid man, and you had a godson to look after!"

Sirius sighed. "I know that, Zoe, but I'd just had to step over my best friend's body to see whether his wife and son were alive. And Hagrid took Harry away from me. Once Harry was out of my arms what was I going to do? What would you have done?" he challenged her. She remained silent. "Speaking of that, what did you do? Where the fuck have you been?" he said, his voice raising.

Zoe looked at her hands, folded on the table. "Sirius, please calm down," she whispered. "It's going to take me a second to tell this story."

"Come on, Zo, you can tell me anything," he pleaded with her. Her lips didn't move. Knowing her as he did, he knew that she was steadying herself. She hadn't changed much really, Sirius considered. Her dark skin and black hair were the same and she still wore her hair in a bun. Her eyes, dark too, had a few more wrinkles around them, however, and her lips weren't painted the shocking shade of red he was used to. She was still short, of course, and her eyes still narrowed the way they always had when she was angry.

"Okay, Sirius. Don't interrupt me, please," she said quietly and Sirius nodded. He would give her that much. "On 9th July 1981, Lucius Malfoy raped me."

Sirius' world shook. He wanted to storm out of that room and beat Malfoy to a pulp, castrate him with a rusty knife and then cut him open and stick his dick where his heart should be. Instead, he continued to stare at Zoe.

"It was the worst experience of my life. I can't explain the pain to you. He raped me, I don't know how many times. I was kept in his manor overnight, I can tell you that much. It was Severus that got me out, Severus Snape," she added unnecessarily. "I don't know why he did it or how really, but he did. He took me to my flat and left me. I sobbed for days on end.

"On Harry's birthday, in the morning, I went to St Mungo's. They confirmed my pregnancy and I knew it was Malfoy's. There'd been no one else for a long time. I was shell shocked. I wanted to run away from everything, from the war, from the dangers, from my rapist. So, I went to Harry's party," she said, her throat catching in a sob, "and I told him I loved him and I told Lily I loved her. I didn't leave a note. I didn't know what to write.

"I went home and bought a plane ticket, to Peru. It was the furthest place I could think of at the time and it sounded so different from here, which was what I wanted. I gave birth to my daughter on James' birthday. Her name is Luisa Lily Angevin and I love her so much that it hurts. I home schooled her. She's fourteen now.

"I never had any intentions of coming back. I wanted to stay away forever, but I found out about Harry. I never got the wizarding news. I didn't want to be a part of it, except to teach Lu. So, I never knew that James and Lily were dead," her throat caught again. "I never knew that Harry had been sent to live with Petunia. I didn't even know Voldemort had been defeated in the first place, never mind come back.

"I worked in a holiday resort and there were a lot of English tourists there, so we got the English muggle news, you know? Anyway, one day there was a paper there that said that a teenager named Harry Potter had killed someone with snake venom and I knew it wasn't true. Not my beautiful baby Harry. So, I packed my bags and Lu packed hers and here we are," she finished.

Sirius stared at her. "I can't believe it. How long have you been here?"

"Only a few days. That was my first shift at the supermarket," she told him.

"I did think you were slow," he teased her and she laughed, wiping the last of her tears from her face.

"Where is he, Sirius? What's happened to our boy?" she pleaded with him and Sirius began to tell her what had happened, what he thought, what Dumbledore thought.

"We're gonna get him back, Zoe, I promise," he swore to her and Zoe nodded.

"How can I help?"

 **XXX**

18th May

"Sirius about?" Tonks asked as she entered the kitchen of the new premises of the Order. It was smaller than Grimmauld Place, but, with no permanent residents except Sirius and Remus, it didn't need to be big really. Remus shook his head. "What? Where is he?" she asked in alarm.

"Moved to some house he's bought with Bill and Charlie," Remus informed her with a shrug. Tonks sat down next to Remus and took hold of his hand.

"What's happened, Remus?" Tonks asked him quietly and he sighed, leaning back against his chair.

"I don't know. Sirius doesn't seem to trust me anymore. He's always sneaking around with Bill and Charlie. I know he wants to find Harry but I just don't understand why I can't help," he said rather morosely.

"Remus, have you told Sirius that you don't agree with what Dumbledore is saying?" Tonks asked with raised eyebrows.

"No, I don't want to distance us all from Dumbledore. He needs to still trust us," Remus said and Tonks rolled her eyes.

"No, Remus, come on. You know Harry didn't do it and the more people who tell Dumbledore that, the more he's going to believe it, I hope so anyway. Sirius isn't trusting you because he thinks you're going to take Harry directly to Dumbledore," Tonks told him forcefully.

"I- Dora, Dumbledore has done so much for me-"

"And James and Lily, and Sirius, did more. They were your best friends, so you have to put their son first."

Remus nodded. "You're right. Of course you're right. The next time I see Sirius, I'll apologise and tell him that I want to do everything we can to find Harry, and Ginny."

Tonks nodded with a grin. "Good," she said with a final squeeze of her hand, before pulling her hand away.

Remus clung to it. "You're amazing, you know that?" he told here and she grinned.

"Of course I do," she replied. "You're not bad yourself, Remus," she said quietly. He was staring at her and Tonks wondered whether he'd do it this time. They'd been in the situation so many times before and he'd pulled away rather than kiss her. This time, she wasn't giving him the choice.

She kissed him.

And he kissed her back.

 **XXX**

 _ **There we go! I thought I'd finished the eighth chapter, but I haven't lol. I'm very nearly there though and I've planned out the rest of the first part so it won't take me long to write. Hope you're enjoying it up to this point - let me know! Lots of love xxx**_


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